
Class 
Book 
Copyiight]^°_ 



b-k04_ 



JEOiL 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



MY LITTLE 



War Experience* 



WITH 



Historical Sketches and Memorabiliat 



BY 



EDWARD W. SPANGLER, 

Private Company K, 

1 30th Rcgfiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, 

Second Brigade, Third Division, Second Corps, 

Army of the Potomac. 



Sl3 



Two Copies Revived 
JUN 2 1904 
A Copyrtefat Entry 

(iLASS/\ XXc'Na' 



COPYRIGHTED 1904 

BY 

EDWARD W. SP ANGLER. 



All Rights Reserved. 



Printed by the York Dally Publishing Company, York, Pa. 



INTRODUCTION. 



THE generous tribute ot praise bestowed upon 
the writer's brief and insignificant Army Ex- 
perience upon its appearance serially in the 
York Daily is his excuse for essaying its publication 
in book form. This tribute was doubtless evoked 
more by the appendant historical sketches than the 
commonplace narrative itself. A large majority of 
our present population has grown up since the termi- 
nation of the terrible internecine struggle for the 
maintenance of the Union, which logically ended in the 
abolition of slavery and the perpetuity of republican 
institutions. To them, especially, this book may be 
instructive and entertaining — notably the parts relat- 
ing to slavery — the primary cause of war, the bitter 
hatred engendered thereby, the graphic battle descrip- 
tions by the commanders on both sides of the great 
contest, and the portrayal of the cognate contempora- 
neous events. To the younger local population must 
be peculiarly gratifying the patriotism displayed by 
their ancestors in the enthusiastic war meetings held 
in York, published in full because they were typical 
of patriotic assemblages held during the war period 
throughout the entire North. 

The sires nobly supported the flag when the war 
clouds first emerged above the horizon, and were ever 
conspicuous in the stirring local events and scenes 
enacted during the greatest conflict in history. Dur- 



iv INTRODUCTION. 

ing the great struggle, they, too aged themselves to 
enlist, furnished their full quota of men and money, 
and extended a most generous and practical hospital- 
ity to the thousands of sick and wounded men sent 
from the front to the York Soldiers' Hospital. They 
were sons of heroic forbears of a County which sent 
more equipped soldiers to the theatre of war in the 
Revolution and lost more men in proportion to popu- 
lation than any other section of the Colonies. 

This prosaic narrative, without literary finish, is in 
itself but a weak and attenuated thread which has 
been made the expedient for suspending from it cam- 
paign excerpts and historical sketches and memora- 
bilia, relevant and irrelevant, that were believed to 
be specially interesting and instructive. The book, 
therefore, can justly be denominated a medley or 
hodge-podge. The thrilling battle scene and other 
pictures, perhaps too profuse, illustrative of the text 
and as varied, were also conceived to be attractive to 
the reader for whose entertainment, if any, this Lit- 
tle War Experience was alone written and compiled. 



CONTENTS. 



INTRODUCTION. 
CHAPTER I. 

The Causes of the Great Civil War. 

The Private Soldier. Protective Tariff and 
African Slavery. Slavery in York County. 
Sensational and Most Remarkable Negro Re- 
ligious Meeting in New Orleans. Contention 
for Secession. The Brutal Assault upon Sen- 
ator Sumner. Intense Indignation in the 
North. The Dred Scott Decision. Disgrace- 
ful Melee in Congress. The John Brown In- 
vasion. I — 12 

CHAPTER II. 

The Genesis of the War. 

Southern States Secede. Patriotic Meetings 
IN York. Fort Sumter Surrenders. Intense 
Excitement in the North. Enlistments. Off 
FOR the Front. At Arlington, Va. The 
March through Maryland. The Battle of 
South Mountain 13 — 28 



VI CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER III. 

Antietam. 

Nothing Like Imminent Peril to Stimulate 
Piety. Sensations upon Entering a Battle. 
The Fears Experienced by Generals Grant 
and Sherman. The Battle of Antietam. The 
Bloodiest Single Day of the War. "Bloody 
Lane." Gallantry of the i^gth Regiment. 
Compliments by Gen. French. Desperate Con- 
dition OF the Enemy. Errors and Mistakes. 29 — 45 

CHAPTER IV. 

Losses in Battle. 

Immense Losses of the Second Corps. The Best 
Fighting Corps in the Army. Its Extraor- 
dinary Achievements. Confederate Descrip- 
tion of the Battle of Antietam. Comparison 
OF Battle Losses with those of Europe. Im- 
mense Superiority of the American Soldier. 
My Shattered Rifle. Taken to Hagerstown 
on a Hay Wagon. The York Soldiers' Hospital. 
30-53 

CHAPTER V. 

Fredericksburg. 

Return to the Army. Picturesque Harper's 
Ferry. Cousins in the Confederate Armies. 
Gen. McClellan Removed. At Belle Plains. 
Our Extreme Hardships and Sufferings. Ter- 
rible Fighting in the City of Fredericksburg. 
The Rigid Dead Confederate. Our Division 
Makes the First Charge on Marye's Heights. 
The Awful Slaughter. The Field Literally 
Covered with Dead and Wounded. The En- 
try of the Shell. Fortunate Escape. 

54—69 



CONTENTS. Vii 

CHAPTER VI. 

Description of the Battle of Fredericksburg. 

By the Count of Paris, 'and Generals French 
AND Couch. Gen. Franklin's Assertion that 
Gen. Burnside's Going to Sleep Lost us the 
Battle. His Erroneous Letter and Conclu- 
sion. Gen. Burnside's Utter Incompetency. • 7° — ^ 

CHAPTER VII. 

After the Battle of Fredericksburg. 

Taken to the Hospitals at Washington and 
Philadelphia. Minister to a Wounded and 
Dying Confederate. Thaddeus Stevens in 
Congress. His Intellectual Supremacy, and 
Invaluable Services in the Cause of the Union. 
Noble Tribute by his Contemporaries. Henry 
Ward Beecher's War Lectures. His Great 
Speeches for the Union in Great Britain. He 
Confronts Angry and Violents Mobs. Converts 
A Hostile Public Sentiment at a Critical 
Period. Fierce and Ludicrous Scenes. 8i — 86 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Chancellorsville. 

Return to the Army in Front of Fredericksburg. 
Winter Dug-outs. Picket Duty. Battle of 
Chancellorsville. The Rout of the Eleventh 
Corps. That Dreadful Saturday Night; Both 
Armies Mixed Up in Total Darkness. Horrors 
OF the Shrieking Wounded, Mingled Curses. 
Havoc Wrought by the Artillery. 87 — 93 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IX. 

Chancellorsville. 

Stonewall Jackson's Mortal Wound and Death. 
Thrown from his Litter. Graphic and Thrill- 
ing Descriptions of the Horrible Night-Battle 
AND Jackson's Tragic Death, by the Count of 
Paris, and Jackson's Widow in his Memoirs. His 
Rank as a Chieftain. A Religious Fanatic. 
Demands the Killing of all Prisoners of War. 
His Death, and not the Battle of Gettysburg, 
the Turning Point of the War 94 — 108 



CHAPTER X. 

Chancellorsville. 

The Battle Renewed on Sunday. Gen. Berry 
Killed in our Company. The Fatal Blunder 
of his Successor. The Terrible Retreat Step 
BY Step to an Inner Line. Hand to Hand 
Conflict. Horses .Shot .Between .the .Lines. 
President Lincoln's Unique Letter to Gen. 
Hooker. The Latter's Incompetency as an 
Army Commander. Corps Commanders in Coun- 
cil OF War, Urge a Renewal of the Attack 
which would have Retrieved the Disaster. 

The Retreat to our Abandoned Winter 
Quarters 109 — 120 



CONTENTS. ix 

CHAPTER XL 

Our Return Home. 

Hospitable Reception Given by the Citizens of 
York. Heroism Extolled. York County in 
THE Revolutionary War. Continental Con- 
gress IN YoRKTowN. Generals Lafayette, Gates 
AND Wilkinson and the Conway Cabal in York. 
The Unfought Duel. Ducking of the Tory 
Rector in York. Banquet on the Commons to 
the 130TH Regiment. Witty Toasts and Elo- 
quent Speeches. Complimentary Order by our 
Division Commander, Gen. French. 120 — 129 



APPENDIX. 



NOTE I. 

(Page 6. 

Negro Religious Meeting. 

Negro -Religious Meeting in New Orleans before 
THE • Civil \N\ar. Graphic and Humorous De- 
scriptions OF the Ministers and Congregation 
who even Surpassed in their Ejaculations, 
Shrieks and Spasms the "Howling Dervishes" 
of the East 131 — 138 

NOTE 2. 

(Page 8.) 

Assault upon Senator Sumner. 

The Murderous Assault by Preston Brooks upon 
Senator Charles Sumner in i8.s6. A Most 
Interesting Description of the Acrimonious 
Slavery Debate that Led to it. and the Preg- 
nant Consequences. 139 — 144 

NOTE 3. 

(Page 10.) 

Free Fight in Congress, 1858. 

The Swagger of Southern Fire-eaters is Resented 
BY Blows. Struggling Masses in Fistic Con- 
flict. Grow fells Keitt. Ludricrous end of 
the Row. How the loss of the Wjg of Gen. 
Barksdale (afterwards killed at Gettysburg) 
Stopped the General Melee i45 — 148 



APPHNDIX. XI 



NOTE 4- 
(Page 12.) 



John Brown Invasion. 



The John Brown Raid and Battle at Harper's 
Ferry. His Last Moments and Execution. In- 
tense Excitement Throughout the Country. 
149—153 

NOTE s. 
(Page 14.) 

Union Meeting in York, 1861. 
154—155 

NOTE 6. 

(Page 15.) 

Fearful Excitement in York. 

"Large and Enthusiastic Town Meeting, April 
i8th, 1861. Patriotic Speeches and Resolu- 
tions. Aid for the Families of York Citizen 
Soldiers. Telegraph and Railroad Communica- 
tions with Baltimore Suspended. Ordering off 
and Departure of the York Military. Passage 
OF Troops. Patriotism of York Citizens." - 156 — 158 

NOTE 7. 

(Page 16.) 

"The War Excitement in York." 

Arrival of the Military. Over Five Thousand 
Troops Quartered in York. Return of the 
York Companies. Immense County Meeting. 
Appropriation of $10,000 by the Commissioners 
AND $q, 000.00 Subscribed for the Families of 
Soldiers. Formation of a Home Guard 159 — 163^ 



XU APPENDIX. 

NOTE 8. 
(Page 17.) 



"The President's Call for Troops in 1862." 

War Meeting in York. Large and Enthusiastic 
Gathering of the People 164 — 166 



NOTE 9. 
(Page 48.) 

Losses in Battle. 

Our Battle and Regimental Losses in the Civil 
War Compared with those of the Great Con- 
flicts OF Europe. Americans the Best, most 
Courageous and Tenacious Fighters in the 
World 167 — 170 

NOTE 10. 
(Page 55.) 



Harper's Ferry. 
By President Thomas Jefferson. 

NOTE II. 
(Page 83.) 

Thaddeus Stevens. 
The Great Commoner. 



171 — 172 



173— 181 



APPENDIX. xm 

NOTE 12. 
(Page 86.) 

Rev. Henry Ward Beecher in Great Britain. 

1863. 

Delivers Brilliant Speeches to Convert the Dom- 
inant Class of that Country to the Cause of 
the North. Is Confronted by Armed and Hos- 
tile Mobs. In Imminent Peril. Graphic and 
Humorous Descriptions. His Transcendent 
Swaying Power as an Orator 182 — 187 

NOTE 13. 
(Page 122.) 

Conway Cabal, Lafayette. 

Gen. Lafayette's Rebuff to the Conway Cabal in 
York. His Second Reception in York, 1825;. 
Early Stages and Primitive Cars. 188 — 190 

NOTE 14. 
(Page 122.) 

Gates— Wilkinson Duel. 

Generals Gates and Wilkinson at York, 1778. 
They meet to Fight a Duel at the "English 
Church," York. The Conway Cabal 191 — 194 

NOTE IS. 
(Page 123.) 

The Ducking of the Tory Rector in York. 

1775- 
194—195 

NOTE 16. 

iPage 123.) 

York County Patriotism in the 

Revolutionary War. 
-^ 196 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Edward W. Spangler, 1863- 1903 Frontispiece 

Soldiers and Sailors Monument, York, Pa. 

The Cause of the Civil War 4 

United States Slave Trade (old print) 4 

African Slavery (old print) 12 

John Brown 12 

Off for the Front, 1861 18 

Return of the Survivors, 1865 18 

Col. Michael H. Spangler, 1814 24 

Battle Monument, Baltimore, 1838 24 

Defeat of Gen. Braddock (old print) 28 

The Battle of Bloody Run (old print) 28 

Where Gen. Grant was Frightened 30 

The Commons, York, Pa 30 

Battery in Full Charge 36 

Bloody Lane, Antietam 36 

Havoc Wrought to a Battery 40 

Fire too Hot; Limbering Up 40 

Artillery in Action 46 

French's Division at Antietam 46 

Harper's Ferry, 1830 50 

Spengler Hall, Strasburg, Va 50 

Settlers Cabin in Primeval Forest 54 

An Old Virginia Mill 54 

Hospital Scene as Seen by the Reserves 58 

A Battle with Mosby's Guerillas 58 

Supply Trains, Belle Plains, Va 62 

Laying Pontoons at Fredericksburg 62 

Bombardment of FrederickslDursf 68- 



LIST OF ILLRSTRA.TIONS XV 

A Recollection of Fredericksburg 68 

Charge of Second Corps on Marye's Heights 72 

Charge on the Ramparts, Fredericksburg ^2 

An Evening in Camp at the Front 78 

The Mills House, Fredercksburg 78 

The Standard Bearer Faithful unto Death 84 

After the Battle 84 

The Dream of the Soldier 92 

Severing Communications 92 

Gen. Hooker's Headquarters, Chancellorsville 100 

Stampede of the Eleventh Corps, Chancellorsville. . . . 100 

Artillery Massed at Chancellorsville 106 

Battle on the Plank Road, Chancellorsville 106 

On the March to Chancellorsville 114 

Retreat from Chancellorsville 1 14 

York's Fourth Company in the Revolution 122 

Return of the Veterans 126 

The Last Muster 126 

The Slave Market, Ancient Rome 136 

Return of the Missionary and Slave 136 

The Last Moments of John Brown 150 

Abolishing Slavery in the House 150 

Capt. Rudolph Spengler's Comp. in the Revolution.. 156 

Centre Square, York, Pa 162 

East Market Street, York, Pa 162 

Reconnoitring 168 

Hon. Thaddeus Stevens I74 

Rev. Henry Ward Beecher 184 

Bent on Storming a Beecher Meeting 184 

Gen. LaFayette's Stage Tour, 1825 188 

Ball Given to Gen. LaFayette, York, Pa 188 

Primitive Coal Train 192 

Primitive Passenger Train 192 

Continental Congress at York, 1777 196 

Stop Firing 202 

Last Thoughts 202 




SOLDIERS AND SAILORS MONUMENT, YORK, PA- 



My Little War Experience. 



The Causes of the Great Civil War. 

The Private Soldier. Protective Tariff and 
African Slavery. Slavery in York County. 
Sensational and most remarkable Negro Re- 
ligious Meeting in New Orleans. Contention 
FOR Secession. The Brutal Assault upon Sen- 
ator Sumner. Intense Indignation in the 
North. The Dred Scott Decision. Disgrace- 
ful Melee in Congress. The John Brown In- 
vasion. 

IN compiling the historical portion of a work issued 
several years ago* the writer found but few scraps 
that threw light upon the movements or experi- 
ences of the battalions of York County troops sent to 
the front in the Revolutionary War. Any personal 
narrative, even from a private soldier, would have 

*Spangler Annals, with Local Historical Sketches. 



2 MY LIlTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

been of great local historical value and profoundly 
interesting. 

Perhaps in the distant future some local chronicler in 
writing with a proper perspective the history of the 
York County troops in the great Civil War, may glean 
at least a bit of information from these pages in relating 
the inconsiderable part taken by the 130th Regiment, 
Pennsylvania Volunteers, of which the writer was a 
youthful and humble private. 

The private soldier in an army of 100,000 or more, 
men is, individually a mere atom, as it were, playing a 
very insignificant part. The range of his observation is 
limited to his immediate surroundings. He knows no- 
thing of the destination of his division, the general 
movements of the army, or the plans of a campaign. 
His province is to obey orders and shoot. 

But why the fierce, savage and rentless fratricidal 
strife and dreadful carnage between the North and South 
for four long, anxious and heartrending years, with a 
sacrifice of 360,000 Union soldiers, and a cost of $3,- 
000,000,000 in money, to which must be added $2,700, 
000,000 paid since in pensions? The only answer, is, 
Slavery, with a protective tariff as an incident. The 
conflict between slavery and Ireedom was "an irrepressi- 
ble conflict." 

The great moral and social evil was so radical and 
deeply rooted that a permanent cure could only be effect- 
ed by a resort to arms, with emancipation as a logical 
sequence. Most of the decisive wars in Christendom, 
since the dark ages, have, like our great struggle, been 
waged to mitigate or eradicate some great moral and 
public wrong, eventuating in the amelioration and up- 
lifting of mankind. Abraham Lincoln rightly contend- 
ed that the Union could not exist half free and half slave, 



THE CAUSES OF THE WAR. 3 

and the South, recognizing the fact, made war against 
the Union to decide the issue. The pregnant and por- 
tentous events that led up successively to the final crisis 
and crash may, as introductorv, prove instructive at 
least to the generation born since the war. 

The remote and proximate causes of the great Civil 
War, as stated, were tariff for protection and African 
slavery. The South, devoted solely to agricultural in- 
terests, demanded free trade. The North, depending 
largely for its wealth upon the products of its manufac- 
turing industries, insisted upon protection. The prices 
of fabricated commodities being enhanced, as alleged, as 
a result of a protective tariff without a correspondiiig 
compensation to the South, John C. Calhoun and his 
States' sovereignty associates asserted that the laying 
of imposts, not for revenue, but for protection, was 
ultra vires — an illegal exercise or want of power; that 
the States had the right to judge of infractions of the 
Federal Constitution and could nullify such laws by 
right of Constitutional resistance. The arguments in 
support of this doctrine by orators of scholastic attain 
ments were more metaphysical and refined than rational 
and sound.* 

The chief source, however, of irreconcilable division 
was slavery. Upon the invention of the cotton-gin in 

*Mr. Calhoun, in 1816, made a vigorous speech in behalf of a protec- 
tive tarifE as calculated "to bind together more closely our wide-spread 
republic." In 1832, and years prior thereto, the Southern States were 
almost unanimous for free trade, and so now was Mr. Calhoun, their brilliant 
exponent, and as there was no immediate prospect of a repeal of the exist- 
ing protective system. South Carolina in the same year adopted an ordi- 
nance to nullify the tariff, and if not repealed, avowed a determination 
to declare its independence. One of the leading facts in President Jack- 
son's administration was the prompt and complete crushing of the con- 
templated secessive of South Carolina, and in which he threatened "by 
the Eternal to hang Calhoun higher than Haman." 



4 MY LITTLE WAR HXPEKIENCK. 

1793, cotton planting became immensely profitable; 
slave labor, indispensable in its cultivation, was in ex- 
cessive demand, and negroes were imported in vast 
numbers.* 

In the opinion of the Southern planter, the slave 
catcher in Africa was a greater benefactor than the re- 
ligious missionary; that the capture and enslavement of 
the hapless African negro contributed immeasurably to 
his benefit and advantage, and that the institution itself 
had the sanction of Divine authority. The ascendancy 
of slave labor degraded and crowded out the relf-respect- 
ing white laborer, and left a class known since as the 
"poor whites," shiftless and densely ignorant. 

Immigrants refused to settle in the slave States and 
capital declined investment, and in consequence the 
Northern States were growing so much faster than the 
South in wealth and population that the latter became 
apprehensive of its ability to extend the institution of 
slavery into the territories which were rapidly filling 
with settlers, the majority of whom^ save in the South- 
west, were from the North. 

The slave holders asserted that not only would this 
extension be arrested, but by reason of the rapidly-in- 
creasing and intensifying abolition sentiment in the 
Free States, the institution was menaced in the States 
in which it already existed. The antagonism thus en- 

*Prior to the discovery of the cotton-gin, the South was engaged in in- 
dustrial pursuits. Its representative citizens- Washington, Jefferson, 
Governor Spottswood and Col. William Bird and others of equal rank — 
were engaged in manufacturing. But the "cotton-saw" opened the 
Southern region to a new field for energy and capital, which for half a 
century, by slave labor, yielded most extraordinary profits. In 1791, 
186,316 pounds of cotton were exported; but the invention principally 
raised it to 17,789,803 pounds in 1800. By this very fact it fastened 
slavery on the South for at least a generation longer than it would otherwise 
. have existed. 




THE CAUSE OF THE CIVIL WAR. (Old print.) 




UIS' 1[ T^ ]E ID § T A 'r .K S3 ?^ ]\. A V .K 'il' 15 AB F. . 
Old Print.) 



THE CAUSES OF THE WAR, 5 

gendered had its origin in the beginning of our history. 
But for the compromises on the slavery question inserted 
in the Constitution — the permission to import slaves 
until 1808, the three-fifths representation of slaves in 
Congress, and the return of fugitives from service to the 
owner — the Thirteen States would not have been able 
in 1787 "to form a more perfect Union." 

The anti-slavery agitation in England which ended 
in the memorable Act of 1807, abolishing the slave trade 
in the British Colonies, exercised a powerful influence 
in the United States. 

For sentimental and economic reasons, slavery in the 
North was gradually abolished. In 1780 the Legisla- 
ture in Pennsylvania passed an act for its gradual aboli- 
tion. The slaves in 1790 in York County, which then 
included Adams County, were 499, and 156 in 1800. 
The last slave in York County died in 1841. 

The subjoined advertisements in the Pennsylvania 
Herald and York Advertiser of January 4th, 1792, show 
even as earlv as the end of the i8th Century, the horrors 
of slavery in selling the slave mother from her children, 
and the brutal application of the lash:* 



*"To BE Sold. 

" A healthy stout Mullato V\^ench 16 years old; she had the small pox 
and measles, can cook, wash and can do most sorts of house work. In- 
quire of Robert White, Tavern Keeper, York. 

Feb. 14, 1798." 

" Negro Female. 

"The subscriber has for sale a NEGRO FEMALE, who is a slave for 
life, about 32 years of age, very healthy and stout, well acquainted with 
business, either in house or field; she has three female children, the oldest 
near six years of age, and the youngest about three months; the two oldest 
are registered according to law. The largeness of the subscriber's own 
family, and her propensity for breeding, are the principal reasons she is 
ofEeied for sale. The purchaser on giving bond and sufficient security, 
will be indulged with one year's credit, or more if necessary. A tender- 
ness in separating a parent from her children, is the inducement for pro- 



6 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

In the Southern States, the slaves of the old aristo- 
cratic families were generally treated kindly and taken 
care of in old age. They were given religious instruc- 
tion, and the services, under the guidance of colored 
ministers, were fervent and earnest, even if tliey appear- 
ed extremely boisterous, comical and ludicrous to the 
educated white observer. A very entertaining and hu- 
morous description of one of these remarkable religious 
gatherings is given by a noted traveller throughout the 
South before the war.f 

But there was a large minority of slave-owners, — a 
large majority in the Cotton States, — who subjected 
their slaves to great hardships and cruelties — a class so 
vividly depicted in '*Uncle Tom's Cabin." They had 
no compunctions whatever in cruelly over-working their 
slaves, and on the coarsest diet, and in exercising the 
lash with undue severity, torturing with the pillory, and 
in separating on the auctioneer's block the husband 
from his wife and the parents from their children. 

These abuses, repugnant to every moral feeling, na- 
turally intensified the anti-slavery feeling of the Free 
States, and accentuated the determination to prevent the 
extenstion of the institution into the territories. New 



tApp. Note 1. 



posing the whole together; but if circumstances on contracting, render it 
necessary, they will be sold separately, except the youngest, by 

Oct. 13, 1790. Moses McClean, Gettysburg, Pa " 

"Thirty Dollars Reward." 

" Runaway from the subscribers, November 26, 1791, living on Sugar- 
land Run, Loudon County, Virginia, two negro men named Philip and 
Daniel. Phil is about 30 years old. Pie is apt to smile when spoken to, 
has a flat nose, large mouth, thick lips, wrinkled forehead, with some scars 
on it, and has the marks of the whip on his back." 

" Daniel is a low full-fed lad 19 years of age, and has a scar on the joint 
of his little finger and hand. James Coleman. 

John Jenkins." 



THE CAUSES OF the; WAR. 7 

and increased markets for slaves being thus menaced, and 
the tariff laws arraigned as an alleged unconstitutional 
invasion of their rights, the slave States contemplated 
even in the first quarter of the last century a political 
separation. With this end in view, their statesmen 
contended that the bond which held the States together 
was a mere compact, and the Federal Union a league or 
confederation which might be dissolved at the will of 
the States. 

It was held by the statesmen of the North, and in the 
earlier days by the constitutional lawyers and jurists of 
the South, that when the States adopted the Federal 
Constitution, the several States abdicated, except as to 
the local powers reserved, their sovereignty to the Fed- 
eral Union, and that, after such abdication, the States 
possessed none of the attributes of sovereignty, such as 
coining money, laying imposts, emitting bills of credit, 
making treaties and levying war. The government of 
the United States being therefore a Nation, no one State 
could secede from the Union without the consent of all 
the others. It was never denied that the inalienable 
right of revolution, by reason of intolerable oppression, 
resided inherently in every people. But that was not 
the contention of the South for the basis of revolution 
did not exist. The right contended for was that of 
secession in virtue of the Constitution. 

With the famous Missouri Compromise began the 
aligned slavery struggle that led to the Civil War, In 
1820, the territory of Missouri, a part of the Jefferson 
Louisana Purchase of 1803, applied to Congress for ad- 
mission as a State into the Union. It was proposed that 
it be admitted as a free State. This bitterly enraged 
the pro-slavery party of the South; and then began a 
long series of acrimonious discussions both in and out 



€ MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

of Congress. It was finally agreed that slavery be per- 
mitted in Missouri, but prohibited in all the territories 
north and west of the northern boundary of Arkansas. 
This was supposed to be a complete settlement of the 
slavery dispute; but soon proved to be a source of 
trouble, the South alleging that it had been obstructed 
in the constitutional exercise of its slave property rights. 

In 1850, the Fugitive Slave Bill was passed, enabling 
the slave holder to recover his slaves in the free states. 
Any assistance rendered a fugitive to enable him to 
escape was penal and subjected the party to damages. 
All citizens were required, when called upon by the 
ofl5cers of arrest, to render personal assistance in the 
performance of their duties. These officers were gener- 
ally the scum of the earth, and unscrupulous in their 
efforts to secure the big rewards offered for the restitu- 
tion of fugitives. To command a free people with 
humitarian instincts, under a posse comitatus, to join 
in a hunt of maltreated and hounded slaves was so 
odious and repugnant that a refusal nearly always fol- 
lowed the fiendish demand, and the law became practi- 
cally a dead letter. 

In 1854, the Missouri Compromise was repealed; the 
act of repeal giving the people of all the territories the 
option to adopt or exclude slavery when applying for 
admission as States. Then began the bitter contention 
in the territory of Kansas. Freemen rushed in from 
the North, and Border Rufiians mostly from Missouri. 
A reign of terror and violence ensued unparalled in the 
history of the country. Kansas, despite the determined 
pro-slavery efforts of the Buchanan administration, was 
ultimately admitted as a free State. 

It was during the acrimonious debate in the United 
States Senate in 1856, on the "Crime against Kansas," 



THE CAUSES OF THR WAK. » 

that the cowardly and murderous assault was made in 
the Senate Chamber by Preston Brooks a member of 
the House from South Carolina, on Senator Charles 
Sumner, of Massachusetts.* It was the most sensational 
event before the war and stirred the North to its depths. 
The day after the assault many members of Congress 
went to their seats armed. 

In 1 85 7, the remarkable Dred Scott decision was 
rendered by the Supreme Court of the United States, 
under which the owner might, without molestation, 
carry his slaves with him into any State in the Union. 
Slaves were declared by the Court to be mere chattels or 
things, same as cattle, and had no standing in Court. 

In the State of Pennsylvania even swine were held 
to have a locus standi; for there is found a Supreme 
Court case in 1833, reported in loth Sergeant & Rawle, 
page 393, entitled The Commonwealth at the relation 
of Jonathan Wilson against Fourteen Hogs, in which 
the hogs w-ere captured, and secured their freedom by 
an action in the nature of a habeas corpus. The Su- 
preme Court said: *' The argument on the part of the 
captor here is, that a hog is an out-law, caput lupinum, 
and may be shot down like a mad dog," a position that 
the Court denied. 

In the opinion filed in the Dred Scott case, the Su- 
preme Court for the first and only time enunciated the 
indefensible doctrine, originated by Calhoun, that the 
Constitution extended ex proprio vigore (of its own 
force) over acquired territory; in other words, that inas- 
much as tlie organic law permitted slavery in the States, 
it carried itself into the acquired territories, and that 
the laws of Congress limiting slavery in certain terri- 
tories, as in the Missouri Compromise, and allowing the 

*App. Note 2. 



10 MY LITTLK WAR EXPERIENCE 

people of a territory to determine whether it should be 
free or slave when applying for admission into the Union, 
were unconstitutional. This decision is the one chiefly 
relied upon by the appellants in the Porto Rico and 
Philippine importation cases, argued in the Supreme 
Court of the United States, and w'liich a year ago (1902) 
challenged the attention of the entire country. 

A citizen of Porto Rico in 1900 imported merchan- 
dise from his island; a soldier brought rings to San 
Francisco from the Philippines, and were both taxed as 
imports from foreign countries. The contention was 
made by the attorneys for the appellants, that the mo- 
ment these new insular possessions were ceded by Spain 
to the United States, under the treaty of Paris, they be- 
came integral parts of the United States, and its people, 
ipse jure, citizens thereof ; and inasmuch as commerce 
is free of duty between the States under the provisions 
of the Constitution, and as the latter, under the Dred 
Scott decision, carries itself by its own force into ac- 
quired territory, therefore the imposition of custom 
duties upon commerce between these islands and the 
United States was a palpable infraction of the Consti- 
tution. 

The antagonism between the North and South 
reached a climax in Congress in 1858 when occurred a 
disgraceful melee in the lower house of Congress be- 
tween struggling masses. The encounter was fierce with 
a most ludicrous ending.* 

One of the most exciting and momentous events of 
the country was the John Brown Raid at Harper's 
Ferry, Va., in the fall of 1859, ^^^ ^^^ capture by 
United States troops under the command of Captain 
Robert E. Lee, afterwards the most famous of Confed- 

*App. Note 3. 



THK CAUSES OF THE WAR. 11 

erate Generals. The bitter feeling engendered on both 
sides by the Dred Scott affair was aggravated by this 
filibustering incursion, and Brown's violent methods 
were treated by the South as a demonstration of North- 
ern sentiment. The execution of John Brown and his 
associates by the Sheriff of the County was doubtless 
justified by the law of the land but proved to be a signal 
blunder. Under the peculiar circumstances executive 
clemency should have been extended. 

Abraham Lincoln spoke in the Cooper Institute, New 
York, February 27th, i860, and referred to John Brown 
in cold, measured and judicial words: "John Brown's 
effort was peculiar," he said. "It was not a slave in- 
surrection, it was an attempt by white men to get up a 
revolt among slaves, in which the slaves refused to par- 
ticipate. In fact, it was so absurd that the slaves, with 
all their ignorance, saw plainly enough it could not 
succeed. That affair in its philosophy corresponds with 
the many attempts related in history at the assassination 
of kings and emperors. An enthusiast broods over the 
oppression of a people until he fancies himself com- 
missioned by Heaven to liberate them. He ventures 
the attempt, which ends in little else than his own ex- 
ecution." 

John Brown was controlled by the noblest motives, 
the highest sentiments of philanthropy and humanity. 
However fatuous, unlawful and violent his methods, he 
represented in his convictions on the great national evil 
of slavery the sentiment and conscience of the North. 
His purpose was the freedom of a race, a purpose since 
achieved, and in which the people of the South, and 
the exponents of Southern opinion, now profess to re- 
joice. It is even now (1903) proposed to place the 
statutes of Gen. Robert E. Lee, of Virginia, and John 



12 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

Brown, of Kansas, as representatives of their respective 
States among the immortals in the Statuary Hall of 
Fame in Washington. 

The last sad moments ot John Brown, the stern old 
Puritan, have been ably depicted on canvas and in 
verse.* 

*App. Note 4. 




AFRICAN SLAVERY. (Old print i 




JOHN BROWN. <pp 10, I49j 



ot^ A.iRTrE:;F^ II. 

The Genesis of the War. 

Southern States Secede. Patriotic Meetings 
IN York. Fort Sumter Surrenders. Intense 
Excitement in the North. Enlistments. Oef 
FOR THE Front. At Arlington, Va. The 
March through Maryland. The Battle of 
South Mountain. 

DURING the greater part of the Buchanan admin- 
istration, the South secretly and sedulously be- 
gan making preparations for war. Buchanan's 
Secretary of War treacherously transferred from North- 
ern to Southern arsenals large stores of arms and ammu- 
nition. The small arms so distributed and sold to the 
Southern States up to 1861 amounted to one hundred 
and fifty thousand of the most improved pattern. Thus 
the North, to a large extent, was unarmed, whilst the 
South was thoroughly equipped for the coming conflict. 
After the eleetion of Abraham Ivincoln, the Southern 
States, one after another, passed ordinances of Secession 
— the border slave States remaining irresolute until 
later, — and on the 4th of February, i860, the delegates 
of the seceded States met in general congress at Mont- 
gomery, Alabama. In these States the ordinance of 



14 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

Secession was received with great rejoicing: bon-fires 
were lit, the towns illuminated, and the militia paraded 
the streets; and in many cases the Federal Arsenals 
were seized and the Federal forts occupied by the State 
troops. 

On the 4th of March, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was in- 
augurated. The Southern orators, notwithstanding the 
President's pacific assurances, renewed with still greater 
insolence, taunt and sarcasm, their diatribes against the 
freemen of the North, who were designated dough-faces 
and cowards, and who would not dare to use force to 
compel the seceding States to remain in the Union. 

Tlie political atmosphere of the whole country had 
for a long time been in an electrical condition which 
presaged a storm. Indignation and resentment were 
accentuated in the North to a pitch that required only 
an overt act to give the "Irrepressible Conflict" a bellig- 
erent expression. Patriotic meetings were held all 
over the North. York was not a laggard. 

A large and enthusiastic War Meeting was held in 
the Court House on January 8th, 1861, for the purpose 
of considerin": the orave condition of National affairs. 
A Committee of thirty-three members reported resolu- 
tions which demanded a total sacrifice of all partisan 
feeling, denounced the right of secession, and expressed 
a determination to give an earnest, decided and effective 
support in vindicating the Constitution and enforcing 
the laws.* 

The storm came like a cyclone upon the capture of 
Fort Sumter, April 13, 1861. This intelligence set the 
entire North aflame with patriotism. It acted as an in- 
spiration, consolidating public sentiment, and dissipating 
political dift'erences. President Lincoln forthwith issued 

*App. Note 5. 



THE GENKSIS OF THE WAR. 15 

a proclamation calling for 75,000 volunteers to serve for 
three months, which was responded to with an unparal- 
leled outburst of enthusiasm. The young- and middle- 
aged rallied to the standard of the Union with a celerity 
that astonished even the fire-eating Southerners, who 
fatuously believed that the dismemberment and destruc- 
tion of the Repiiblic, and the establishment of a slave 
empire in the South, would be an easy task. 

The present generation can form no adequate concep- 
tion of the indignation and intense excitement of that 
memorable April 13th, and the weeks following. In 
the history of National uprisings it was unequalled. 
All were for immediate war. On the i8th of April, the 
citizens of York assembled in the Court House in great 
numbers, for the purpose of giving a practical expres- 
sion of their devotion to the Union. The Borough au- 
thorities appropriated $1,000.00, the County Commis- 
sioners made an appropriation of $10,000.00 the week 
following; Hanover and Wrightsville gave liberally, 
and nearly $4,000.00 were contributed by the citizens of 
York.* 

On April 19th the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment in 
passing through Baltimore was attacked by a large mob, 
and a number killed and wounded. Portions of the 
track of the Northern Central Railroad were torn up 
and the bridges burned between Cockeysville and Balti- 
more. 

On Satarday, April 20, at 11 o'clock P. M., the York 
Rifles and the Worth Infantry Companies left in a special 
train going towards Baltimore, and were stationed in 
squads at the several bridges of the road in Maryland as 
far as Cockeysville. Ten or twelve trains containing 
3,000 troops passed through York on Sunday for Ash- 

*App. Note 6. 



16 MY LITTLK WAR EXPKKIENCE. 

land and Cockeysville. On Monday, these regiments re- 
turned and encamped on the Fair Grounds, and by the 
7th ot May, 5,500 men were in camp there. 

These troops were soon after transferred to General 
Patterson's command operating beyond Harper's Ferry 
to prevent Gen. Joseph E. Johnson's division from re- 
enforcing Gen. Beauregard at Manasses. Johnson out- 
generaled Patterson, and his timely support of Beaure- 
gard's exhausted and shattered forces lost us the battle 
of Bull Run. 

The great war meeting of April aotli, 1861, was suc- 
ceeded by a patriotic meeting of the ladies of York who 
offered their services in preparing lint and bandages 
and to minister to the sick and wounded soldiers, 
ministrations that were emphasized in a most worthy, 
signal and practical manner a year later when on the 
Commons of York a large soldiers' barracks was convert- 
ed into a spacious hospital which was filled with thous- 
ands of sick and wounded men until the end of the war 
— total 14,256. From the beginning of the month of 
May regiments of troops passed daily through York for 
the seat of war, cheering lustly as they passed through 
the city. Company after company was recruited in 
York and sent to the front.* 

On July 21, 1 861, was fought the disastrous battle of 
Bull Run. In response to President Lincoln's second 
call, patriots flocked to arms, and on December 2, 1861, 
the Union armies aggregated 660,971 men. July i, 
1862, ended the "seven days' battle" on the Chicka. 
hominy before Richmond, and the retreat of McClellan's 
Array to the James river. 

On August 4th, 1862, President Lincoln called for 
300,000 volunteers to serve for nine months. In con- 

*App. Note 7. 



THE GENESIS OE THE WAR. 17 

sequence, another war meeting was held by the citizens 
of York, for the purpose of taking measures to fill the 
county's quota — four companies which were quickly re- 
cruited.* 

In the fall of 1861, I was rejected on account of my 
youth and small stature as a drummer boy in the 87th 
Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers then forming on the 
York Commons, — eight Companies from York County 
and two from Adams. 

It was on these historic Commons that the York 
Troops in the Revolutionary War were recruited and 
drilled ; and where two regiments of the Pennsylvania 
Line in 1781 on their way to the South under General 
Anthony Wayne, encamped. On account of the priva- 
tions and want of supplies, mutiny became rampant in 
the camp, and after a drnmhead Court martial, seven 
were shot.f On these Commons, also, 5,000 Pennsyl- 
vania Militia assembled in the War of 181 2-14 ready, 
if needed, to confront the British at Baltimore or else- 
where. 

About August 5th, 1862, having obtained my mother's 
written consent, tearfully given, to my enlistment in the 
army, in company with my brother Frank, two years my 
senior, we resigned our store clerkships. I was then a 
little over sixteen years of age and weighed ninety-two 
pounds. A company was recruited by Levi Maish with 
headquarters in the Hartman building which Frank and 
I joined. The Company was quickly filled, and with 
three other York County Companies immediately re- 
paired to Harrisburg and rendezvoused at Camp Cur- 
tin, about one mile North of the Capitol. 

Volunteers responded to the President's call through- 

*App. Note 8. 

tNote — Spangler Annals, pp. 569-574. 



3 8 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

out the State by hundreds and thousands ; companies 
were formed and assigned to regiments in the Camp. 
Only those then living have a true conception of the 
patriotic ardor and wild enthusiasm that prevailed. 
Every train to Harrisburg carried companies in citizen 
clothes to march out a week later in uniforms of blue 
with glistening rifles and bayonets. 

Our first night's experience consisted in sleeping in 
tents, on board floors, the reverse of comfort. The next 
day the company was assembled in a large tent, and ex- 
amined nude by an army surgeon. When my turn 
came to be inspected, sounded and measured, he said to 
me, "Young man, you are only five foot two — two inches 
too short." I immediately stood on my toes and said? 
" Try it again." He did; and, winking, replied, "That's 
all right." I afterwards wished that I hadn't been so 
fertile in resource. 

Meanwhile, ten companies were selected, from the 
scores of new companies just arrived in camp, to form 
the regiment — four from York County and six from 
Cumberland County and vicinity — and designated the 
130th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers. On August 
9th, 1862, the regiment was aligned and mustered into 
the service of the United States for a period of nine 
months, unless sooner discharged by a termination of 
the war. The following morning. Governor Curtin de- 
livered the regimental flag in a most eloquent and pa- 
triotic address. We immediately marched, amid the 
plaudits of the people of Harrisburg, to the railroad 
station, where we were placed in box cars and started 
for Washington. On our arrival at York, a large con- 
course of relatives and friends awaited us and gave us a 
most enthusiastic reception, and a tearful and God-Bless- 
You send-ofF. 




Fruiii BaUles, ami Leai 



leib oi me CivU War. 

OFF FOR THE FRONT, 1861. (pli 




RETURN OF THE SURVIVORS, 1865. 
Grand Review of the Union Armies at Washington. 



THE GENESIS OF THE WAR. 19 

The regiment arrived at Baltimore about 6 P. M. 
The demonstrations of the populace so far as manifested 
were friendly, the hostile mob element of the previous 
year having mostly gone into the Confederate Army. 
In marching up Calvert Street from Calvert Station, we 
passed in Monument Square the famous Battle Monu- 
ment with its Egyptian base surmounted with a classic 
shaft, griffins and eagles, and bassi relievi representing 
battle scenes of the fierce struggle in 1814 at North 
Point, below the city, between our militia forces and 
the British troops just fresh from their victory at Blad- 
ensburg. Gen. Ross, the British Commander-in-Chief, 
was killed, and his forces driven to their ships. It was 
in this battle that Captain Michael H. Spangler's York 
Rifles, the only Pennsylvania troops in the engagement, 
fought with great gallantry.* 

Upon our arrival at Camden Station of the Baltimore 
and Ohio railroad, we were furnished supper by the 
Union Relief Association of the city. We arrived in 
Washington at midnight, and were quartered at the 
Soldiers' Retreat, a spacious wooden structure, at the 
railroad depot. At daylight we got our first view of the 
white marble Capitol. We had never before seen an 
edifice so large, noble, majestic and imposing in appear- 
ance. Its present lofty dome, with its tiers of columns, 
beautiful ornamentations, its summit surmounted by the 
colossal statute of Liberty, was then erected only a score 
of feet above the adjacent wings, with a huge crane pro- 
jecting from the opening. 

After breakfast, the regiment with colors flying moved 
under a hot sun up Pennsylvania Avenue, unpaved and 
full of ruts, down to Long Bridge spanning the Po- 
tomac, which we crossed, and proceeded to Camp Welles 

*Spangler Annals, pp. 161, 475. 



20 MY LITTLE WAR EXPEKIENCE. 

three miles beyond, where we bivouacked for the night. 
A day or two after, our company was detailed to guard 
and protect Arlington, an old classic Virginia mansion 
with an estate of a thousand acres on the right bank of 
the Potomac immediately opposite Washington. The 
buildings, surrounded by venerable trees, consisted of a 
large and stately brick structure with slave quarters and 
stables. From the ample porch with its immense Colo- 
nial columns, we had a picturesque view of the Capitol 
City. The old portraits of the Custis and Lee families 
were still hanging on the parlor walls. P'or years prior 
to the outbreak of the war it was the home of General 
Robert E. Lee who married a daughter of George Wash- 
ington Parke Custis, a grandson of Mrs. Washington. 
The interior architecture in Mr. Custis' time, was a per- 
fect reproduction ot an aristocratic Virginia interior of 
a century ago. All about the place had the aspect of 
antiquity and former wealth and ease. Where is now 
located the beautiful Soldiers' National Cemetery was 
then a dense forest of stately oaks and chestnuts ex- 
tending miles around. 

It was rumored that our company was detached to 
perform guard duty at Arlington during our entire term 
of service. To this we emphatically demurred, as we 
had enlisted to fight the enemy, and not to protect from 
spoliation the property of the great Confederate chief- 
tain. However, after a week's service, we were ordered 
to return to our regiment. The next day the regiment 
marched about six miles further up the Potomac pass- 
ing many forts on the way, and encamped at Fort Marcy 
near the Chain Bridge. The day was very hot and 
sultry, and the marching with our heavy clothing and 
accoutrements very fatiguing. Many were exhausted 
and fell out of the ranks before half the distance was 



THE GENESIS OF THE WAR. 21 

compassed. Singlarly enough, I was not one of the 
number and reached the new camp with the regiment. 

Here we had our first company and regimental drills, 
which, with picket duty and swimming the rapid and 
turbulent current of the falls of the Potomac, constitut- 
ed our daily routine. Company cooking in huge iron 
kettles gave us a monotonous daily supply of bean-soup, 
often burnt in the cooking, for our noonday meal. This 
constrained us to hanker for active service in which the 
commissary doles to each soldier his meagre and inex- 
pensive ration to appease with his own cooking an ap- 
petite that is always keen. 

While at Fort Marcy, the bloody battle of Second Bull 
Run on August 29th and 30th was fought. The terrific 
cannonading sounded to us like the continuous detona- 
tions of distant thunder. We were anxious to know the 
result of the battle, and had not long to wait, for, on the 
second day after, along came the retreating Army of the 
Potomac, dust-laden, ragged and weary. 

On the 5th of September began the invasion of Mary- 
land by Gen. Lee's Army, and on the 6th the Army ot 
the Potomac, under Gen. McClellan, crossed in pursuit 
the Chain Bridge into Maryland. It was our first day's 
march with the army. The heat was sultry and oppres- 
sive, and after we had gone but a short distance on the 
turnpike, all superfluous clothing was doffed, and both 
sides of the highway were strewn with overcoats, knap- 
sacks and other impedimenta. We had no tents, and 
our only covering at night thenceforward were thin 
woolen blankets. These were rolled up in the form of 
a scarf, tied together at the ends and worn from the left 
shoulder to the right side. After compassing about fif- 
teen miles, we arrived very tired and fatigued at Rock- 
ville, Maryland. 



22 MY LITTLB WAR EXPERIENCE. 

Company cooking having been abandoned, each 
soldier thereafter prepared his own meal, which fortu- 
nately did not require much skill in the culinary art. 
His cooking utensils consisted of a quart tin cup, and 
a small tin pan. The cup was used to boil coffee, and 
to soak in water hard-tack which was fried in a pan 
with pickled pork, an unpretentious meal, but eaten 
with gusto after a hard day's march. 

Early next morning the army was again in mo- 
tion. The heat was still intense, and the suffocating 
dust more than ankle deep. It ascended in clouds above 
the highest trees, so that the movements of the army 
could be descried miles distant. Many of the green 
troops were prostrated with sunstroke, and stretched 
along the highway. 

We arrived in the evening at a large grove called 
Camp Defiance. Here our regiment, the loStli New 
York and 14th Connecticut, all new troops, were brig- 
aded, and assigned as the second brigade under the 
command of Col. Morris of the 14th Connecticut, to 
Gen. French's Third Division of the Second Corps com- 
manded by General Edwin V. Sumner. The 12th New 
Jersey joined the Brigade after the battle of Fredericks- 
burg. The other Brigades of the Division were Max 
Weber's and Kimball's, and the other Divisions of the 
Corps were those of Sedgwick and Richardson. As we 
approached the enemy, the army marched in three par- 
allel lines, the artillery on the public highway, and the 
infantry divisions on both sides, ready to deploy in line 
of battle. 

On the morning of September 13th, as we crossed a 
commanding range of hills southeast of the Baltimore 
and Ohio railroad bridge spanning the Monocacy river, 



THE GENISIS OF THE WAR. 25 

we beheld the church-spired city of Frederick and the 
broad, fertile and opulent valley of the Monocacy, shut 
in by low mountains of surpassing grace and outline, 
with all nature abloom, — a scene in the fierce sunlight 
of enchanting beauty. Before we entered the city, Gen. 
McClellan with a brilliant staff rode up the turnpike 
through our corps, and was greeted with the most en- 
thusiastic cheers. 

The march of the corps, through Frederick, with 
full brigades with all the pomp of war and past the 
Army Commander and glittering staff, the streets re- 
sounding with applause, amounted to an ovation. The 
stars and stripes, furled while the commands of Stone- 
wall Jackson and D. H. Hill had possession of the city 
a few days before, were now unfurled and floated to the 
breeze. Ladies, dressed in their best, waved their hand- 
kerchiefs and flags. The populace cheered to the echo, 
tokens of a most cordial welcome, and supplied water 
and refreshments to the thirsty and hungry men. Their 
smiles and tears of gratitude and joy, attested their loy- 
alty to the Union in no uneertain degree. That the 
aged and celebrated Barbara Frietchie greeted our corps 
by waving her historic flag, can, of course, not be 
doubted. 

It was in Frederick, about 6:30 P. M. that McClellan 
was put in possession of Lee's famous "Lost Dispatch" 
to Gen. D. H. Hill, disclosing by the routes of march 
the positions of the divided wings of Lee's army, capa- 
ble of being annihilated in detail. It was an order 
of such importance, present and prospective, in making 
McClellan master of the military zodiac, of which 
he utterly failed to take advantage, that I copy it 
in full, with explanations of its pregnant signifiance 
later on: 



24 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

"SPECIAL ORDERS No. 191. 
Headquarters Army of Northern Virginia, 

September 9, 1862. 

The army will resume its march tomorrow, taking the Hagerstown road. 
General Jackson's command will form the advance, and, after passing 
Middletown, with suoh portion as he may select, take the route toward 
Sharpsburg, cross the Potomac at the most convenient point, and by Fri- 
day night take possession of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, and capture 
such of the enemy as may be at Martinsburg, and intercept such as may 
attempt to escape from Harper's Ferry. 

General Longstreet's command will pursue the same road as far as 
Boonesboro', where it will halt with thi reserv.-, supply, and baggage 
trains of the army. 

General McLaws, with his own division and that of General R. XL An- 
derson, will follow General Longstreet; on reaching Middletown, he will 
take the route to Harper's Ferry, and by Friday morning possess himself 
of the Maryland Heights, and endeavor to capture the enemy at Harper's 
Ferry and vicinity. 

General Walker, with his division, after accomplishing the object in 
which he is now engaged, will cross the Potomac at Cheek's Ford, ascend 
its right bank to Lovettsville, take possession of Loudon Heights if 
practicable, by Friday morning, Key's Ford on his left and the road be- 
tween the end of the mountain and the Potomac on his right. He will, as 
far as practicable, co-operate with General McLaws and General Jackson 
in intercepting the retreat of the enemy. 

General D. H. Hill's division will form the rear guard of the army, pur- 
suing the road taken by the main body. The reserve artillery, ordnance 
and supply trains, &c., will precede General Hill. 

General Stuart will detach a squadron of cavalry to accompany the com- 
mands of Generals Longstreet, Jackson and McLaws, and with the main 
body of the cavalry will cover the route of the army and bring up all strag- 
glers that may have been left behind. 

The commands of Generals Jackson, McLaws, and Walker, after ac- 
complishing the objects for which they have been detached, will join the 
main body of the army at Boonesboro' or Hagerstown, 

Each regiment on the march will habitually carry its axes in the regi- 




From Spangler Annals. 



Col. MICHAEL H. SPANGLER, 1814 p 19- 




From Spangler Annals. 

BATTLE MONUMENT, BALTIMORE, 1838. 'p 19) 



THE GENESIS OP THE WAR. 25 

mental ordnance wagons, for use of the men at their encampments, to 
procure wood, etc. 

Sy command of General R. E Lee. 

R. H. Chilton, 
Assistant Adjutant General. 
Major-General D. H. HiLL, 

Commanding Division." 

After passing through Frederick, we bivouacked in 
its western outskirts. The rifles were stacked, and im- 
mediate preparations made for the evening repast. Rail 
fences, according to custom, were appropriated for a 
roaring fire. Quite a number of our company had their 
quart cups of water boiling on a blazing fire, ready for 
coffee, when a careless comrade stumbled against the 
end of a rail, upsetting all our cups. The imprecations 
heaped on his unhallowed head by the hungry victims 
were more forcible than elegant. 

We were in motion at daylight the next morning, 
September 14th, and soon heard the dull, booming 
sounds of distant guns in the mountains to the west. 
During a considerable portion of the day we marched 
and counter-marched over and around the Catoctin 
Mountains. These oscillations so bewildered me as to 
points of the compass, that I was certain the sun that 
evening set in the east — Joshua's earlier battle miracle 
laid completely in the shade. 

Couriers later reported that a battle was raging at 
Turner's Gap, a pass in the South Mountain through 
which runs the main highway from Frederick by Mid- 
dletown to Hagerstown. South Mountain is the crest 
of a spinal ridge running from north to south, and a 
thousand feet in height, and the Gap about four hundred 
feet. D. H. Hill's division of five brigades held this 
strong defensive for the purpose of holding McClellan 
in check long: enough to enable Lee to reunite his divid- 



26 MY LITTtU WAR EXPERIENCE. 

ed forces. The engagement opened early in the morn- 
ing with Pleasonton'vS command of cavalry and artillery. 
Cox's division of Reno's Ninth Corps soon after arrived 
and joined in the conflict. At 2 P. M. Reno's remain- 
ing divisions and Hooker's First Corps appeared on the 
scene. To meet this attack were present D, H. Hill's 
five brigades, and at 3 P. M. two brigades and at 4 P. 
M. four additional brigades, from Longstreet's command. 
The battle raged with great violence until evening when 
the Confederates divisions were dislodged and driven to- 
wards Hagerstown. 

During our progress we heard the constant detona- 
tions of the artillery. About 4 P. M. we came in sight 
of the battle field, and upon reports received of a victory 
we halted for the day. Rail fires were quickly support- 
ing our cups filled with green corn. Just then Gen. 
Sumner observed Confederate columns hastening to the 
support of their hard-pressed divisions at South Moun- 
tain. The command of "fall in" was instantly given, 
and the simmering corn was reluctantly thrown away. 
Before our arrival within the zone of fire the battle was 
practically won, and in consequence we were halted 
about dusk, at a supporting distance. It fell to the un- 
fortunate lot of our and other companies to be stationed 
in a meadow entirely too soggy to recline upon for much 
needful rest and slumber. 

Fatigued, weary and almost famished, we were com- 
pelled to stand in this uninviting spot for hours. When 
finally about midnight we began to move, I was so ex- 
hausted that I could absolutely march but a few steps 
farther. As we emerged, I threw myself on a bank by 
the roadside, and covered with my blanket, fell into a 
profound sleep. At daybreak I awoke much refreshed, 
and forthwith went in pursuit of the regiment which I 



THE GENESIS OF THE WAR. 27 

found at the edge of the battlefield sound asleep. I did 
not tarry, but, anxious to see what a battlefield looked 
like, made a short sojourn up the National turnpike to 
the Gap. 

The first evidence I saw of the conflict was a dead 
cavalryman, evidently a courier. He was shot through 
the head, and his blood-covered face and glassy eyes 
made a ghastly sight. He was the first dead soldier I 
saw, and it was by no means a pleasing spectacle. 

As I reached the crest of the mountain near the 
"Mountain House," hundreds of dead Union and Con- 
federate soldiers covered the ground, denoting the vio- 
lence of the contest. The loss was 1,568 killed and 
wounded, and the casualties of the enemy were almost 
as heavy. 

At sunrise we were in pursuit of the enemy. In our 
advance, the 8th Illinois Cavalry charged upon their 
rear guard, sabring some and taking prisoners. The 
latter, in passing to our rear, gave us the first view of 
live Confederates. They presented a ragged and un- 
kempt appearance, save a handsome young lieutenant 
who was attired in a brand new uniform of gray. In 
answer to our questions as to whether any more rebels 
were left, he replied that we would see lots of them 
shortly, and we did. 

Late in the afternoon, impelled by an aching void and 
a desire for a change of diet, I repaired to a spacious 
farm-house near the highway, in quest of a pie for value. 
The matron emphatically refused compensation, and 
stated that as she was Union to the core she would take 
no pay from a Union soldier. As I had neither time 
nor inclination to argue my faint protest, I thanked her 
for her hospitality and returned to the regiment much 
refreshed. We passed through Boonsboro and Keedys- 



28 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

ville and halted for the day. In a churchyard near 
Boonsboro my maternal grandfather, Yost Herbach, 
(now Harbangh) lay buried — a fact I did not know at 
the time. In 1831 he visited his daughter, Mrs. Ben- 
jamin Emmert, residing in that vicinity and in the same 
year died there. In 1755, when but 14 years old, he 
accompanied Braddock's expedition as a teamster, and 
was also at Bloody Run in the Indian wars. He was a 
captain in active service in the Revolutionary War. 




DEFEAT OF GENERAL BRADDOCK. (Old print.) (p28i 




THE BATTLE OF BLOODY RUN Old runt p 28 



Ct^wA^F^TTE^Fe III. 

Antietam. 

Nothing Like Imminent Peril to Stimulate 
Piety. Sensations upon Entering a Battle. 
The Fears Experienced by Generals Grant 
and Sherman. The Battle of Antietam. The 
Bloodiest Single Day of the War. "Bloody 
IvANE." Gallantry of the 130TH Regiment. 
Compliments by Gen. French. Desperate Con- 
dition OF THE Enemy. Errors and Mistakes. 

ON the morning of the 15th, Lee, with Longstreet's 
and D. H. Hill's commands, established himself 
on a range of hills between the Antietam and 
Sharpsburg. The position was strategic and a strong 
defensive one. On the i6th Jackson, conquerer of 
Harper's Ferry, arrived with Stark's and Lawton's 
divisions; those of Anderson, McLaws, Walker and A. 
P. Hill arrived in succession on the following day. 

In the forenoon of the 15th McClellan had our and 
four other Corps with Pleasonton's Cavalry confronting 
the two Confederate commands, but he permitted that 
day and the next to be frittered away. Early on the 
morning of the i6th our division was placed at the 
brow of a hill, with its crest toward the enemy. To- 



30 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

wards noon artillery battallions became engaged. 
Screaming shells passed over our heads exploding 
with a deafening roar. These fear-producing missiles 
gave us the first real taste of war, and the sensations 
of the green soldiers were anything but pleasant. 
The idea harbored before, that we would " rather 
fight than eat " became suddenly susceptible ot con- 
siderable moderation, and a square meal, even with- 
out dessert, out of range would have been more palata- 
ble. I was dreadfully scared and began to pray for a 
safe deliverance from the impending battle, as doubtless 
did thousands of others. The Colonel of the 14th Con- 
necticut Regiment, commanding our brigade, read his 
prayer-book or Bible on horseback. 

There is nothing like solid shot and shell to stimu- 
late piety. Some in reading this, may be malevolently 
disposed to repeat to themselves the ancient couplet: 

" When the Devil was sick, the Devil a Monk would be; 
When the Devil was well, the Devil a Monk was he." 

Unorthodox as I am, I have always believed in the 
appropriateness of prayer, and the duty and obligation 
of all to invoke protection, mercy and forgiveness from 
an All-Merciful and All-Benignant Creator. I never 
entered a battle without such an invocation, and to 
Divine intervention I alone ascribe my miraculous 
escapes in three of the bloodiest battles of the war, in 
all of which many comrades next or near me were either 
killed or wounded. 

Of course, my piety was not confined to battle-fields 
alone, but on all other occasions it was not quite so fer- 
vent, nor came to me with such sudden and headlong 
spontaneity. If our prayers are not always answered as 
we would wish, for He knoweth best, the appeal at least 




WHERE GEN GRANT WAS FRIGHTENED, ip 31 








4 





v'f^^^i^*Pj' 



^* 



4 ■ 




A 



From Spangler Annals. 



THE COMMONS, YORK, PA. ip17) 



ANTIRTAM. 31 

manifests a dependence, reliance, reverence, gratitude 
and thankfulness to the Great Creator of all; and no 
matter of what religion the supplicant may be, or what 
•God he may worship, if the worship is sincere and 
honest, it will reach the Supreme Being. 

From personal observations, I believe that the thought 
of the soldier, green or veteran, with rare exceptions, is, 
as he advances toward the firing line amid showers of 
unearthly shrieking projectiles, that he will not likely 
escape from being either wounded or killed. This ante- 
cedent fear seizes the bravest of soldiers and officers, 
some of whom have not hesitated to give their sensations 
public expression. The braggart who boasts the con- 
trary never smelt gun powder in battle, and the truth is 
not in him. Gen. Sherman, in his memoirs, says: 

" All men naturally shrink from pain and danger, and only incur their 
risk from some higher motive or from habit, so that I would define true 
courage to be a perfect sensibility of the measure of the danger, and a 
mental willingness to incur it, rather than the insensibility to danger of 
which I have heard far more than I have seen. The most courageous men 
are generally unconcious of possessing the quality. Therefore, when one 
professes it too openly by words or bearing, there is reason to mistrust it." 

Gen. Grant, phlegmatic and imperturbable as he was 
by nature, in his memoirs, remarks of his first battle in 
Mexico: 

" What Gen. Taylor's feelings were during the suspense I do not know; 
but for myself who had never heard a hostile gun before, I felt sorry that 
I had enlisted. A great many men when they smell battle afar off, chafe 
to get into the fray. When they say to themselves, they generally fail to 
convince their hearers that they are as anxious as they would like to make 
believe. As they approach danger they become more subdued. This rule 
is not universal for I have known a few men who were always aching for a 
fight when there was no enemy near, who were as good as their word, 
when the battle did come. But the number of such men are small." 



32 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

As Gen. Grant's brigade at the battle of Belmont 
in 1 86 1 came near the Confederates, he courageously 
confessed his trepidation: 

" My sensations, as we approached what I supposed might be a field of 
battle, were anything but agreeable. As we approached the brow of the 
hill from which it was expected we conld see Harris' Camp, and possibly 
find his men ready to meet us, my heart kept getting higher and higher, 
until it felt to me as though it was in my throat. I would have given any- 
thing to have been back in Illinois. But I had not the moral courage to 
halt, and I kept right on." 

We bivouacked on this field, and early the next morn, 
ing, September 17th, by order of Gen. French, our divi- 
sion commander, we divested ourselves of blankets and 
other extras and made ready for battle. Each man car- 
ried forty rounds of ammunition in his cartridge box 
and forty in his coat-pockets. As the order to advance 
was delayed, I read a chapter of my pocket Bible and 
then handed it to Christian Good, a small private like 
myself of the rear rank, and said, read it, for it may be 
your last opportunity. The poor fellow was killed with- 
in an hour afterwards. A carbuncle had for some days 
been gathering on my right knee, and when I arose that 
morning my leg was inflamed and painful and as stiff as 
a ramrod. I showed it to my captain who said that I 
could not go into the battle with such a leg, and direct- 
ed me to stay behind. At this, a few of my comrades 
made invidious remarks, implying that I was showing 
the white feather. This put me on my mettle, and I 
determined to go in, crippled as I was. 

Gen. Hooker crossed Antietam Creek the evening be- 
fore, to engage the Confederate left under Stonewall 
Jackson. Next morning the struggle in his front began 
in earnest and a terrible slaughter ensued. Mansfield's 
Twelfth Corps came to Hooker's support and suflfered a 



ANTIETAM. 33 

heavy loss. Hooker was severely wounded and carried 
from the field. Sedgwick's division of our Corps then 
went to the relief of Mansfield, who was killed, and 
was met with a murderous fire. The entire right was 
checked in the onslaught. 

When we began our march for the battle line, about 
8 A. M,, a battalion of artillery with guns at full gallop 
swept into position, opening in volleys. It was a grand 
and inspiring sight to witness batteries going headlong 
into action, — the neighing of horses, the rumbling of 
caissons, the halt, the furious cannonade, the oflScers on 
their chargers with swords gleaming in the sunlight, 
with buglers clanging out the orders, the passing of 
ammunition, the ramming, the sighting, the firing, 
and the swabbing, — the guns booming in chorus like 
heaven-rending thunder. 

We passed through a hollow in the rear of this artil- 
lery batallion, the Confederate shells all the while pass- 
ing over us. We forded Antietam Creek, several feet 
in depth, in three columns. Immediately beyond our 
division faced to the left, forming three lines of battle, 
and against a hot artillery fire moved toward the enemy. 
Our brigade was in front, with Gen. Kimball's and Max 
Weber's veteran brigades following, the former en eche- 
lon on our left. The advance was so rapid that I, with 
my stiff leg, could not keep up. After traversing an ex- 
tensive meadow for about a quarter of a mile, the regi- 
ment was halted and re-aligned, enabling me to catch 
up. As I climbed over a post- fence a rebel bullet whizzed 
past my head which made me dodge. Our company 
passed between the barn and garden fence of the Roulette 
premises. Here a number of our company and regiment 
bolted as they did in every battle, but they are di awing 
their pensions all the same. The enemy was driven by 



ol MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

our regiment out of ihe garden and orchard beyond, and 
after passing over a deep gulley in a ploughed field, we 
were ordered to lie down on the eastern slope of a hill, 
our company being in the immediate vicinity of a large 
elm tree. 

While prostrate, the Confederates on the crest of the 
hill fired volleys into our ranks. The bullets flew 
thicker than bees, and the shells exploded with a 
deafening roar. I was seized with fear far greater 
than that of the day before. I hugged the ploughed 
ground so closely that I must have buried my nose 
in it. I thought of home and friends, and felt that 
I surely would be killed, and how I didn't want to be! 
Fortunately, the Confederate rifles were aimed just a 
little too high, and only a few of our company were 
then wounded. 

The First Delaware regiment of Max Weber's bri- 
gade ot our division forming the second line, now pass- 
ed to the front, but only succeeded in reaching the brow 
of the hill, when a galling fire of the enemy hurled them 
headlong through our ranks. We were immediately 
ordered to take the hill which we did in gallant style, 
forcing, with a withering fire, one of Gen. D. H. Hill's 
brigades pell-mell into a sunken road, famous in history 
as the "Bloody Ivane." The rails of the fence on the 
near side of the road had been previously piled before 
it, placing the enemy, as it were, in a fort, which gave 
them, except as to their heads, immunity from our rifle 
fire. 

The moment I discharged my rifle, all my previous 
scare was gone. The excitement of the battle made me 
fearless and oblivious of danger ; the screeching and ex- 
ploding shells, whistling bullets and the awful carnage 
all around me were hardly noticed. Nothing but posi- 



ANTIETAM. 35 

tive orders would have induced me to cease firing. I 
never experienced such excitement and rapture. Our 
many wounded were carried off the field by comrades, 
but I was so busily engaged in firing at the enemy, that 
it never occurred to me to participate in this commend- 
able and humane service. The hill from which we de- 
livered our fire descended abruptly to the fortified road 
filled with Confederates, and not more than three hun- 
dred feet distant. A score or more venturesome 
ones came out of this road and advanced toward us 
along the rail fence of a lane on our immediate left 
running from the sunken road to the Roulette build- 
ings. All these brave men were killed. Adjoining our 
regiment on the left and across this lane, was the 7th 
Virginia (Union) Regiment, of Kimball's Brigade, 
entirely exposed to the enemy's fire. I could*' not 
help admiring the admirable discipline of these vet- 
erans, standing up as if on inspection, and firing 
from a perfectly straight line. Further on the left^ 
I saw during the engagement the Irish brigade ot 
Richardson's division of our corps charge the enemy 
in gallant style. Meanwhile, the battle was raging 
with the greatest fury, and the field thickly do^tted 
with the dead. The infantry fire was at close range 
and the cannonade terrific, causing the earth to shake 
and tremble. 

After I had discharged the forty cartridges in my 
cartridge-box, I replaced them with the forty in my coat 
pocket. During the time in which we were engaged, I 
fired as fast as I could load, causing the barrel of my 
rifle to become so hot that it burnt me when I touched 
It. After my eighty rounds were exhauted, I turned 
over a soldier of the First Delaware, the top of whose 
skull was shot off, and took from his cartridge-box, ten 



36 MY LITTLE WA.R EXPEF.IENCH. 

Enfield rifle cartridges, which fortunately fitted the 
barrel of my Springfield rifle. 

During the engagement, D. H. Anderson's division 
arrived from Harper's Ferry as a greatly needed re- 
inforcement, and plunged down the hill opposite, to- 
ward us with their regimental flags waving, the stars 
and bars being clearly discernible in the noonday sun. 
Before they entered the sunken road, where they found 
nearly all their comrades of the first line wounded or 
killed, one of their regiments wavered. A large Con- 
federate ofiicer, evidently of high rank, waved his sword 
in the air in rallying his men, and was especially con- 
spicuous. I was so anxious to get a shot at him that in 
the hurry I neglected to extract my ramrod, and fired it 
with the charge. I replaced the ramrod with an En- 
field one. Others as anxious as myself, doubtless, 
aimed at him, and he soon fell wounded or killed. In 
the midst of the battle a Confederate tried to climb 
over the fence at the further side of Bloody Lane, but 
was shot in the rear as he reached the top, his body 
hanging on the upper rail. When our regiment buried 
him, it was found that he had been riddled with seven- 
teen bullets. A correct sketch of this lane filled with 
dead Confederates, as well as of the one hanging on the 
rail, was made by Captain James Hope on the spot, 
immediately after the retreat of the enemy, and is re- 
produced here. This Lane was literally packed with 
their dead. At one point, according to Captain Hope, 
thirteen dead bodies lay on a heap, at other places they 
lay two, three, even five deep. No battle of the late 
war, of so short duration, presented such a scene of 
carnage. 

Our regiment about two o'clock was relieved, the am- 
munition having been exhausted. I had then two En- 



i ^ ■ .*,.i^ 








-•'^=^\ZL»- - 



BLOODY LANE, ANTIETAM. p 36 




BATTERY IN.FULL CHARGE, i pp 37, 1981 



ANTIRTAM. 37 

field cartridges left, having fired eighty-eight rounds in 
all. Immediately after the regiment was relieved I no- 
ticed that the stock of my rifle was pierced by a rebel 
bullet, presumably while loading, otherwise I would 
have been hit. It muse also have occurred about 
the time I stopped firing, or I would have seen it 
sooner. Only eight of our company, myself included, 
remained on the field when we were relieved. Of these, 
I can now remember only James McComas, George 
Young and brother Frank. Not only was the loss very 
heavy, but each severely wounded man required from 
two to four men to carry him off the field. 

A wide gap occurred on the immediate right of our 
brigade, on account of French's division having di- 
verged too far to the left. A daring body of Confeder- 
ate infantry in perfect alignment marched into this in- 
terval, shortly before we returned from the field. A 
battery of artillery with grape and canister alone pre- 
vented them from taking us in reverse. A right wheel 
brought them at right angles to our brigade, where they 
were confronted by a brigade of Franklin's fresh divis- 
ion which opportunely came up the Roulette lane and 
confronted them. Upon the arrival of Franklin's 
other brigades they were instantly driven back, and the 
line of battle re-established. No one, unless he has 
seen it, can realize the tremendous impact of a bullet 
striking a soldier squarely when discharged at short 
range. It knocks him down like a catapult. Lieuten- 
ant Tomes, of Company B., a man of large stature, was 
struck in the groin by a bullet, and hurled fully two 
feet in the air. 

In our march to the rear to replenish our ammuni- 
tion, became separated from my company on account 
of the jambing of the retiring regiments into the Rou- 



38 MY UTTLK WAR EXPERIENCE. 

lette lane and the arrival of reinforcements. While 
endeavoring to find the locality of our wounded, Con- 
federate shells from their large guns came hurtling in 
every direction. A number ricochetted quite near me 
with most hellish sounds. I did not delay my footsteps? 
nor tiy a few Parthian shots in return. I found several 
barns filled with wounded, but none of our company. 
In my further search, I reached the hill where Gen- 
McClellan had his headquarters. From this elevation I 
had a survey of the whole battle-field on which the 
contending armies were still fiercely engaged. I par- 
ticularly noticed a battery near the Clipp house engaged 
in a deadly duel with a Confederate batallion of ar- 
tillery located on the commanding plateau south of the 
Dunkard Church. The enfilading fire wrought havoc 
among men and horses, compelling the battery to lim- 
ber up and change to a more sheltered position. The 
battle field was mostly covered with an immense sheet 
of smoke miles in extent, through which could be seen 
the flashes of the infantry and artillery fire. The rattle 
of musketry and the thunder of the furious cannonade 
were simply terrific. 

I soon afterwards found the house and barn in and 
around which the wounded of our brigade were col- 
lected and where I first ascertained our casualties. My 
haversack was empty and I was very hungry. I cap- 
tured a chicken, and with my bayonet dismembered it. 
While I was engaged in this menial occupation, Jacob 
Brillinger, who had just arrived from York to witness 
the battle, came along, followed later by Alderman 
Augustus Ivoucks. I greeted him with " How are you, 
Mr. Brillinger ? " He replied, " Who in the devil are 
you ? " After giving my name, he said, " Why, I 
thought you were a little darkey." The smoke of bat- 



ANTIETAM. 39 

tie had colored my face and hands into an almost Sene- 
gambian darkness. It is needless to say that after a daily 
diet of pork and hard-tack, the stewed pullet was rel- 
ished as a feast fit for the gods. 

The house, barn and adjacent lawns were covered 
with wounded. One of my company, Adam Brown, I 
found shot through the abdomen. As mortification su- 
pervened, his body turned green, and he implored me to 
put an end to his agony. He died shortly after. The 
sight of hundreds of prostrate men with serious wounds 
of every description was a appalling. Many to re- 
lieve their suffering, were impatient for their turn upon 
the amputation tables, around which were pyramids of 
severed legs and arms. Others screamed with excruci- 
ating pains. A few, under the influence of anaesthetics, 
ripped out a succession of oaths that must have re- 
quired years of sedulous preparation. Many prayed 
aloud, while others shrieked in the agony and throes of 
death. No one can adequately depict this horrible 
spectacle and pandemonium of distressing and heart- 
rending sounds. With the close of day ended the blood- 
iest single day of the war. Night aflforded to the un- 
harmed much needful slumber. 

Daylight next morning disclosed the enemy in the 
second line to which they were driven the afternoon be- 
fore. The wounded of both armies were drawn into 
their respective lines and the dead who lay within reach 
were buried. Save desultory shots fired by skirmishers, 
both armies remained inactive during the day, greatly 
to the relief of the Confederates. Lee had his last man 
in action, with no hope of reinforcements. His condi 
tion was desperate. His losses were terrible, and the 
survivors so used up and demoralized that, according to 
Gen. Longstreet, a division of 10,000 men could by a 



40 MY LITTI.K WAR KXPKRIKNCE. 

resolute charge on the preceding afternoon, have routed 
and captured Lee's entire army. 

During the night of the 17th and the morning of the 
iSth, Couch and Humphrey's divisions of 14,000 men 
arrived on the field. These with Porter's reserve divis- 
ion of 12,000 men, backed by the reuuiiuder of the 
army, shouUI have been ordered to renew the struggle* 
With such odds the decinuited ranks of the enemy must 
have been crushed by the onset. But INIcClellau lost 
courage. He, as usual, greatly overestimated the 
strength of the opposing forces, and declined to em- 
brace ihe golden opportunity. By nature he lacked 
prompt discernment, indomitable energy and the imper- 
turbabilit>-, inflexible courage and staying powers of the 
great chieftains in history. These lamentable defects 
were later equally apparent in Gen. Hooker, at Chaucel- 
lorsville. 

On the morning of the 19th orders for a general at- 
tack were at last given, and the army advanced, only to 
find Lee's entire forces across the Potomac. The martial 
quarry escaped, to refit and recuperate, and ready to 
pour, from the impregnable hill of Marye's Heights, a 
murderous and irresistible fire, and inflict a signal defeat 
upon the brave army of the Potomac — a defeat due 
solely to a still more incapable, if not imbecile, Com- 
mander. On the evening of the icjlh, five Confederate 
guns were captured in a brigade attack across the Po- 
tomac, followed by a counter assault in which our forces 
were driven back across the river with an appalling loss 
of life. McClellan gave the army a few day's rest, and 
then moved it to Bolivar Heights at Harper's Ferry, to 
be restored to its normal condition. 

The finding of the " Lost Dispatch " was a piece of 
rare good fortune, and of priceless value to McClellan 




HAVOC WROUGHT TO A BATTERY GOING INTO ACriON. pp 33, 198) 




FIRE TOO HOT. LIMBERING Ui\ p Jb. 



ANTIRTAM. 41 

in placing the army of Lee at his mercy. This special 
order disclosed the all-important fact that Lee had di- 
vided his army by sending Jackson's command and Mc- 
Laws, R. H. Anderson's and Walker's divisions to cap- 
ture the garrison at Harper's Ferry of 11,500 troops with 
73 cannon and 200 wagons, which was accomplished on 
the 15th by a most disgraceful capitulation. The re- 
maining divisions of Confederates were ordered via. 
Boonsboro, to Hagerstown. These separated wings were 
not within supporting distance of each other if either 
should be attacked before the 17th. It required only 
strenuous efforts to enable McClellan to attack Long- 
street before Jackson could come to his support. Such 
an attack would have annihilated Longstreet's command, 
with the inevitable defeat and capture of Jackson's di- 
visions to follow. Even with the progress the army 
was making Longstreet could have been forced to battle 
on September i6th. Having delayed until the 17th, 
all the divisions engaged at Harper's Ferry were able to 
participate in the battle, and save the day. Despite 
their timely arrival, Lee's army was so reduced by 
losses, that McClellan could yet have crowned the day 
with a signal victory, had he hurled early in the after- 
noon Gen. Porter's reserve corps of 12,000 men against 
Lee's centre. 

Another signal blunder of McClellan's was the unre- 
lated and isolated methods of attack. Hooker on the 
right was beaten before the arrival of Mansfield ; Sum- 
ner, in the centre, did not reach the field until Mansfield 
was discomfitted ; and on the left, Burnside, by irres- 
olute and indecisive assaults, failed to take the Bridge 
before the combat in Sumner's front practically ended. 
There was even an absence of co-operation by the differ- 
ent Corps divisions. The bloody endeavors to cross the 



42 MY LITTLE WAR HXPERIENCE. 

bluff-protected Bridge could have readily been avoided' 
by an effort to discover a ford* existing a short distance 
below, which could have been crossed without material 
opposition. Toomb's Brigade alone defending the 
Bridge, could have been brushed aside, Lee's centre 
taken in reverse, and by a simultaneous assault in front, 
the Army of Northern Virginia would have been driven 
into the Potomac. 

Burnside's delay in taking the bridge enabled Lee, 
when the battle was most violent in his centre and left, 
to transfer on an interior line of a crescent-sha])ed field, 
nearly all the forces on his right to the other sections 
of the field so seriously menaced. In fact, as Longstreet 
says, Lee missed his forces to such an extent on his 
centre and left that when the conflict was at its fiercest 
he had but a few hundred men on the steep bluff over- 
looking and defending the Burnside Bridge. Subse- 
quently at Gettysburg, the line of battle of the con- 
tending forces was reversed, and by reason of Lee's ex- 
tended exterior line of battle and absence of simnlta- 
ncmis attacks by his centre and wings, each was 
beaten in succession. 

In the organization of our armies, we also erred in 
forming brigades from regiments of different States, 
thus losing the stimulus of State pride. The Southern 
generals knew better ; their brigades being formed by 
regiments of the same State. Pickett's gallant division, 
as an instance, was composed entirely of Virginians. 

Another significant error was made in sending to the 
front nndrilled regiments whose officers and men were 
entirely green, — a mistake avoided by the Confederacy. 



*A fact related to me by Col. H. Kyd Douglass, of Hagerstown, a 
member of Stonewall Jackson's staff, who had actual knowledge of the 
ford. 



ANTIETAM. 43 

While fighting gallantly, they could have done still bet- 
ter if merged into the thinned regiments of tried vet- 
erans. Their courage was often misdirected by the lack 
of officers of experience to lead, and instil by example 
an imperturbable bravery. Gen. Sherman, in his me- 
moirs, states the immense advantage of this system of 
replenishing the army. 

" The great mistake made in our Civil War was in the method of re- 
cruiting and promotion. When a regiment was reduced by the necessary 
wear and tear of service, instead of being filled up at the bottom, and the 
vacancies among the officers filled from the best non-commissioned officers 
and men, the habit was to raise new regiments with new colonels, captains* 
and men, leaving the old and experienced battalions dwindle away to mere 
skeleton organizations." 

" I believe with the volunteers this matter was left to the States exclu- 
sively, and I remember that Wisconsin kept her regiments filled with re. 
cruits, whereas other States generally filled their quotas by new regiments, 
and the result was that we estimated a Wisconsin regiment equal to an 
ordinary brigade. I believe that five hundred new men added to an old 
experienced regiment were more valuable than a thousand men in the form 
of a new regiment, for the former by association with good experienced 
captains, lieutenants and non-commissioned officers, soon, becames veter- 
ans, whereas the latter were generally unava lable for a year." 

The Confederates had another advantage in fighting 
their battles — Antietam and Gettysburg excepted — on 
their own soil and among their own people who gave 
invaluable information of the movements of the North- 
ern armies. They also invariably took advantage of 
every strong defensive position and behind every avail- 
able cover. The dense forests of Chancellorsville and 
the Wilderness, and the wooded and mountainous coun- 
try from Chattanooga to Atlanta were specially taken 
advantage of by them. Jackson's position in a railroad 
cut at the second battle of Bull Run, and Lee's centre 



44 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

in the sunken road (" Bloody Lane ") at Antietam, 
saved the day to the Confederates in both battles. 

Gen. Sherman states these advantages more cogently; 

"The Confederates took advantage of the shape of the ground and ol 
every cover. We were generally the assailants and in wooded or broken 
countries had a positive advantage over us, for they were always ready, 
had cover and knew the ground in the immediate front; whereas, we, 
their assailants, had to grope our way over unknown ground, and generally 
found a cleared field or prepared entanglements that held us for a time 
under a close and withering fire." 

These extended observations are given to show, inde- 
pendent of the lamentable incapacity of many of our 
generals, why the preponderant Union forces were not 
always successful where they otherwise should have 
been. 

Our company loss in this battle ot about sixty-five 
men engaged, was six killed and thirteen wounded. 
Our regimental loss, of about six hundred and fifty ef- 
fectives, was according to Bates' History of Pennsylva- 
nia Volunteers, forty killed and two hundred and fifty- 
six wounded. Col. Fox, in his "Regimental Losses in 
the Civil War," places the loss thirty-two killed and 
and one hundred and forty-six wounded. Among the 
extraordinary losses of regiments in this battle he men- 
tions the 130th alone of the "Nine Months" Pennsyl- 
vania Regiments. The author further says, "The per- 
centage of killed in soldiers ot the Keystone State, as 
based upon the white troops, was greater than in the 
quota of any other Northern State." 

General French, commanding our division, said in his 
ofiicial report: 

" The conduct of the new regiments must take a prominent place in the 
history of this great battle. Undrilled, but admirably armed and equipped, 
every regiment, either in advance or reserve, distin,guished itself, but ac- 
cording to the energy and ability of their respective commanders." 



ANTIETAM. 45 

The report of Col. Morris, commanding our brigade, 
exhibits the service of his command: 

"There never was such material in any army, and in one month these 
splendid men will not be excelled by any!" 

Gen. Walker, in his history of the Second Corps, de- 
scribes the charge of our brigade of new troops : 

" All these regiments came under a savage fire, which they bore with 
remarkable composure, considering it was their first action." 

A writer, Charles Carleton Coffin, in Volume 2, of 
" Battles and Leaders in the Civil War," which contains 
a correct steel-plate illustration of the charge of French's 
division, gives a thrilling description of the advance of 
French's and Richardson's divisions. He was an eye 
witness and says: 

" How beautifully the lines deployed. The clouds which hung low all 
the morning had lifted, and the sun was shining through the rifts, its 
bright beams falling on the flags and glinting from the gun-barrel and 
bayonet. Memory recalls the advance of the line of men in blue across 
the meadow at Roulette's. They reach the spacious barn which divides 
the line of men as a rock parts the current of a river, flowing round it, but 
uniting beyond. The orchard around the house screens the movements in 
part. I see the blue uniforms beneath the apple-trees. The line halts for 
alignment. The skirmishers are in advance. There are isolated puffs of 
smoke, and the Confederate skirmishers scamper up the hill and disap- 
pear. Up the slope moves the line to the top of the knoll. Ah! what a 
crash! A white cloud, gleams of lightning, a yell, a hurrah, and then up 
in the corn-field a great commotion, men firing into each other's faces, the 
ground strewn with prostrate forms. The Confederate line in ' Bloody 
Lane' has been annihilated, the centre pierced." 



Losses ill Battle. 

Immense Losses of the Second Corps. The Best 
Fighting Corps in the Army. Its Extraor- 
dinary Achievements. Confederate Descrip- 
tion of the Battle of Antietam. Comparison 
OF Battle Losses with those of Europe. Im- 
mense Superiority of the American Soldier. 
My Shattered Rifle. Taken to Hagerstown 
on a Hay Wagon. The York Soldiers' Hos- 
pital. 

THE loss ill killed and wounded of the Second 
Corps in this battle amounted to more than 
double that of any other corps engaged. Of 
15,000 effectives it lost S83 killed, 3,859 wounded and 
336 missing; total 5,138. The entire loss of the army 
was 2,010 killed, 9,416 wounded and 1,043 missing, a 
total of 12,469. The Second Corps was known as the 
"Fighting Corps" of the Army, and for that reason 
was selected for the advance in most of the engagements 
of the Army of the Potomac. Gen. Nelson A. Miles, 
who had a command in the corps, in his " Personal 
Recollections," says of it: 

" It inscribed a greater number of engagements upon its banners than 



LOSSES IN BATTLE. 47 

4id any other corps of the army, and I think, more than any other army- 
corps in the history of the world. The graves of its fallen are to be found 
on every battle-field of the Army of the Potomac from the date of its or- 
ganization to Appomattox. As the war for the Union was unprecedented 
in the history of the world, so the history of the Second Army Corps was 
unprecedented in that war. Its aggregate wounded and killed in battle 
exceeded in number that of any other corps. The greatest aggregate of 
killed and wounded in any division of the army was in the First Division 
of that corps, and the highest aggregate of killed and wounded in any one 
regiment of the whole army was in a re;.^iment belonging to the Second 
Army Corps. The largest percentage of killed and wounded in a single 
■engagement in any one regiment was a regiment belonging to the Second 
Corps. The second highest per centage of regimental loss by deaths and 
wounds was also in a regiment of that corps. As to the successes and 
achievements of that famous corps, they are indicated by the fact that it 
x:aptured in a single day as many battle-flags, cannon and prisoners of the 
enemy as it lost in the entire four years of war." 

Major-General Winfield S. Hancock, who command- 
ed the corps after the battle of Chancellorsville, says in 
a letter dated August, 1864, before Petersburg, Virginia, 
and addressed to Lieutenant-General Grant: 

" It is perhaps known to you that this corps never lost a color or a gun 
previous to this campaign, though oftener and more desperately engaged 
than any other corps in this army, or perhaps in any other in the country. 
I have not the means of knowing exactly the number of guns and colors 
captured, but I saw myself nine in the hands of one division at Antietam, 
and the official reports show that thirty-four fell into the hands of that 
corps at Gettysburg. Before the opening of this Campaign it had at least 
captured over half a hundred colors, though at cost of over twenty-five 
thousand (25,000) casualties. During this campaign you can judge how 
the corps has performed its part. It has captured more guns and colors 
than all the rest of the army combined. Its reverses have not been many, 
and they began only when the Corps had dwindled to a remnant of its 
former strength; after it had lost twenty-five brigade commanders and 
over one hundred and twenty-five regimental commanders, and over 
twenty thousand men." 



48 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

Gen. Miles further observes as to the extraordinary 
fighting qualities and tenacity of the famous Army : 

" The Army of the Potomac was probably engaged in as many desper- 
ate battles as any army ever was in the history of the world. The map of 
the country between Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and Appomattox, Virginia, 
is red with the crimson spots that indicate its history. That army was 
charged with the grave double responsibility of protecting the national 
capitol, and of capturing the capitol of the Confederacy. It was further 
charged with the destruction or capture of the Army of Northern Vir- 
ginia, commanded by one of the ablest of generals, Robert E. Lee, sec- 
onded by that thunderbolt of war, " Stonewall Jackson." All these tasks the 
Army of the Potomac accomplished. The number and desperate ^char- 
acter of its encounters may be illustrated by the history of the single corps 
of that army already mentioned. Its personnel were largely volunteers 
who had been quick to offer up their lives for the preservation of the 
Union. Knowing the value of military discipline they accepted without 
complaint its extremes! requirements. This explains the matchless forti- 
tude displayed by that army through the long and trying years of the war, 
much of the time suffering under reverses and disasters that would have 
destroyed the morale of any army composed of less choice material. And 
of the same choice material were the entire national forces composed. 
While heroic sacrifices were made by the Army of the Potomac, other 
armies and fleets were with similar devotion engaged in the same noble 
cause." 

It is interesting to note the heroism and inflexible 
determination of the American soldier compared with 
that of the European. It shows the immense superiority 
of the former. A comparison of regimental and battle 
losses incontestibly demonstrates it* 

The bravery and unconquerable tenacity exhibited 
on both sides in this battle is shown by Gen. Long- 
street. That McClellan, by throwing in Porter's fresh 
corps at the decisive moment on the afternoon of the 
17th, or by renewing the attack on the i8th with 

*App. Note 9. 



LOSSES IN BATTLE. 49 

the reinforced army, could have annihilated Lee's 
Army, is confirmed by the same General in his graphic 
description of the battle in our immediate and adjacent 
front. His humorous description of Gen. D. H. Hill's 
dilemma is one of the few amusing episodes in "grim- 
visaged war:" 

" D. H. Hill was on the left extending toward the Hagerstowa — Sharpg- 
buTg pike, and Jackson extended out from Hill's left toward the Potomac. 
The battle opened heavily with the attacks of the corps of Hooker, Mans- 
field and Sumner against our left centre, which consisted of Jackson's 
right and D. H. Hill's left. So serere and persistent were these attacks 
that I was obliged to send Hood to support our centre. The Federals 
forced us back a little, however, and held this part of our position to the 
end of the day's work. With new troops and renewed efiEorts McClellan 
continued his attacks upon this point from time to time, while he brought 
his forces to bear against other points. The line swayed forward and 
back like a rope exposed to rushing currents. A force too heavy to be 
withstood would strike and drive in a weak point till we could collect a 
few fragments, and in turn force back the advance till our lost ground was 
recovered. A heroic effort was made by D. H. Hill, who collected some 
fragments and led a charge to drive back and recover our lost ground at 
the centre. He soon found that his little band was too much exposed on 
its left flank and was obliged to abandon the attempt. Thus the battle 
ebbed and flowed with terrific slaughter oa both sides." 

"The Federals fought with wonderful bravery and the Confederates 
clung to their ground with heroic courage as hour after hour they were 
mown like grass. The fresh troops of McClellan literally toie into shreds 
the already ragged army of Lee, but the Confederates never gave back." 

***** ******** 

" Nearly one-fourth of the troops who went into the battle were killed or 
wounded. We were so badly crushed that at the close of the day ten 
thousand fresh troops could have come in and taken Lee's army and every- 
thing it had. But McClellan did not know it, and (apparently) feared, 
when Burnside was pressed back, that Sharpsburg was a Confederate vic- 
tory, and that he would have to retire. As it was, when night settled 
down both armies were content to stay where they were." 



50 MY LITTLK WAR EXPEKIK^^CE. 

" During the progress of the battle of Sharpsburg, General Lee and I 
were riding along my line and D. H. Hill's, when we received a report of 
movements of the enemy and started up the ridge to make a reconnois- 
sauce. General Lee and I dismounted, but Hill declined to do so. I said 
to Hill, "If you insist on riding up there and drawing the fire, give us a 
little interval, so that we may not be in the line of the fire when they 
open up on you." 

"General Lee and I stood upon the top of the crest with our glasses, 
looking at the movement of the Federals on the rear left. After a mo- 
ment I turned my glass to the right — the Federal left. As I did so, I 
I noticed a pufiE of white smoke from the mouth of a cannon. "There 
is a shot for you," I said to General Hill. The gunner was a mile away, 
and the cannon shot came whisking through the air for three or four sec- 
onds and took off the front legs of the horse that Hill sat on and let the 
animal down on his stumps. The horse's head was so low and his croup 
so high that Hill was in a most ludicrous position. With one foot in the 
stirrup he made several efforts to get the other leg over the croup, but 
failed. Finally we prevailed upon him to try the other end of the horse, 
and he got down. He had a third horse shot under him before the close 
of the battle. That shot at Hill was the second best shot 1 ever saw. 
The best was at Yorktown. There a Federal officer came out in front of 
our line, and sitting down to his platting table began to make a map. One 
of our officers carefully sighted a gun, touched it off, and dropped a shell 
into the hands of the man at the little table." 

I brought my shattered rifle with Enfield ramrod from 
the battle-field to our barn hospital, and prevailed upon 
Peter Loucks, now deceased, and Albert Smyser, to take 
it home to my mother. It escaped detection by rolling 
it in the wagon curtains of their team. After the rifle 
reached York there was a good deal of publicity about 
it and of my narrow escape. This came to the ears of 
an officious and unscrupulous assistant provost marshall 
of York County, who immediately demanded it from 
my mother, claiming it was government property and 
seized it. As the rifle, shattered as it was, was of no 
further use to the United States, the seizure was en- 




From Spantjler Annals. 

HARPER'S FER^Y AND SHEN^NDD^H VALLEY, 1830- pp 40, 54, 171 




From Spangler Annals. 



SPENGLER HALL, STRASBURG, VA. 'p 55) 



I 

I 



LOSSES IN BATTLE. 51 

tirely unwarranted, and the person responsible for the 
dastardly act, I only forgave when he died, so that Saint 
Peter would be relieved from putting embarrassing 
questions. Upon my return from the army I made 
strenuous efforts to recover it, but without success. If 
I now had it money could not buy it. 

In the battle I fired a portion of the time on my 
knees, and in the excitement and turmoil forgot all 
about the carbuncle on my knee. On the day succeed- 
ing the battle, my right leg became more inflamed and 
swollen. I experienced the greatest difficulty in walk- 
ing to Boonsboro, a mile or more distant, where the 
swelling further increased. The day following, I was 
conveyed in great pain, with the other sick and wound- 
ed on a jarring hay wagon, to Hagerstown, where I was 
carried to a public hall converted into hospital purposes. 
A surgeon's knife was plunged into the inflamed car- 
buncle, followed by a copious flow of pus. In a few 
days I was transported by rail to York and lodged in the 
army hospital on the Commons. 

This spacious hospital, covering the major portion of 
the Commons, was first opened for the reception of pa- 
tients on the 1 8th day of June, 1862. Extensive frame 
buildings were first erected as a barracks for the 6th 
New York (Ira Harris) Cavalry in December, 1861, who 
were quarteied there during the winter. After their de- 
parture for the front, at the instance of Rev. George M. 
Slaysman and upon the reccommendation of Captain 
Putnam, U. S. A., the barracks greatly enlarged and 
improved, was prepared for the accommodation of the 
thousands of sick and wounded soldiers who were 
ministered to during the remainder of the war. The 
most liberal contributions in money and provisions were 
made by the citizens of York. The corps of surgeons 



52 MY LITTLE WAK EXPERIENCE. 

was assisted by scores of ladies of the city who volun- 
teered their services in furnishing delicacies of every 
description and were untiring in alleviating the hapless 
condition of the sufferers. Mrs. Robert J. Fisher, in 
describing the harrowing daily scenes, says: 

" Constant accessions to the hospital were received from the various 
bloody fields. None but an eye-witness can conceive the horrors that hung 
over the death-freighted cars. The worst cases were immediately after the 
battle of Antietam. The wounded brought directly from the battlefield 
were laid upon the floors of the cars which ran with blood from many an 
uncomplaining hero. One by one the sufferers were tenderly taken and 
placed upon stretchers to be carried to the hospital, followed by a compas- 
sionate procession eager to do something for their relief." 

Funeral processions headed by muffled drums, from 
the hospital to the self-consecrated spot in Prospect Hill 
Cemetery, where of almost daily occurrence. This ab- 
normal rate of mortality appeared alarming, and yet in 
number insignificant compared with the 359,378 soldiers 
who died in this war in the service of their country. 

" The muffled drums sad roll has beat 

The soldier's last tattoo; 
No more on Life's parade shall meet 

That brave and fallen few." 

" On Fame's eternal camping ground 

Their silent tents are spread, 
And Glory guards, with solemn round, 

The bivouack of the dead." 

" Rest on, embalmed and sainted dead, 

Dear as the blood he gave! 
No impious footstep here shall tread 

The herbage of your grave; 
Nor shall your glory be forgot 

While Fame her record keeps. 
Or Honor points the hallowed spot 

Where Valor proudly sleeps." 



LOSSES IN BATTI,E. 53 

With a happy, free, opulent and prosperous Union — 
prosperity and happiness unprecedented — we can only 
now fully appreciate the patriotism and self-denial of 
these heroes and what they died for. 

Think of it ! Had the Southern Confederacy triumph- 
ed there would have been a divided people — a slave 
Empire of the South and a Free Republic in the North, 
with only an imaginary and intangible line of demarca- 
tion from the Atlantic to the Pacific; a divided Missis- 
sippi to arrest the prosperity and development of the 
great West; Free Trade in the one, and a Protective 
Tarifif in the other — the continuous clashing of hostile 
interests and policies; idle factories, destroyed com- 
merce, distress everywhere; turmoil and eruptions 
among contiguous sections, and incessant wars along 
the entire border — and finally exhausted, the pity of 
our friends, the derision of our foes, and a prey to the 
rapacious Monarchies of Europe. We should therefore 
never fail to revere the memories of the great deeds ot 
those who shed their blood for their country, nor forget 
the value of the great heritage which comes to us and 
succeeding generations through so much of sacrifice and 
death. 



Fredericksburg. 

Return to the Army. Picturesque Harper's 
Ferry. Cousins in the Confederate Armies. 
Gen. McClellan Removed. At Belle Plains. 
Our Extreme Hardships and Sufferings. Ter- 
rible Fighting in the City of Fredericksburg. 
The Rigid Dead Confederate. Our Division 
Makes the First Charge on Marye's Heights. 
The Awful Slaughter. The Field Literally 
Covered with Dead and Wounded. The En- 
try OF THE Shell Fortunate Escape. 

ON my recovery from illness the latter part of Oc- 
tober, 1862, several hundred soldiers left the 
York hospital with me to rejoin their respective 
regiments. We went by rail to Harper's Ferry, where, 
on Boliver Heights the Army of the Potomac encamped, 
recuperated and drilled after the battle of Antietam. 
Upon our arrival we found the army had about a week 
before gone up the Loudon valley east of the Blue 
Ridge. 

The village of Harper's Ferry is nestled in a gorge at 
the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers 
which, united, forced here in ages past a passage through 




From Spangler Annals. 

SETTLER'S CABIN AND THE PRIMEVAL POREST. p 55' 




From Spangler Annals. 



AN OLD VIRGINIA MILL, 'p 56j 



FREDERICKSBURG. 56 

the Blue Ridge Mountains. The scenery is perhaps 
the most singularly picturesque in the country east of 
the Rocky Mountains. Immediately above the village 
is Bolivar Heights. Here is found Jefferson Rock, a re- 
markable stratified formation that rises abruptly from 
the street. Maryland Heights on the north and east 
presents jagged and precipitous sides. Its cliffs in the 
centre maintain splendid pali.sades or escarpments. On 
the right can also be descried overhanging masses of 
projecting stone known as *' Profile Rock." On the 
south looms up the lofty Loudon Heights with its de- 
clivitous surface and gigantic rocks and sides seamed 
with innumerable fissures and dry ravines. To obtain 
an extended view of the fertile Virginia Valley to the 
south and west with its undulating wooded slopes and 
cultivated fields, I climbed by a perilous path to the 
summit of the Heights. A slip would have precipitated 
me down many hundred feet to sure destruction. The 
grand and extended view from this lofty summit amply 
repays the fatigue and hazard incurred in the ascent. 

The great Thomas Jefferson, before we were familiar 
with all the natural wonders of our western land, has 
left a powerful description of the scenery of this roman- 
tic spot.* 

About 1790, six sons of Philip Caspar Spengler (orig- 
inal spelling), my great-grandfather's brother, settled in 
this section, then to a large extent an untamed wilder- 
ness. Two of them, Charles and Philip, had been brave 
Revolutionary soldiers. Charles Spengler died in 1832 
and was buried by the Virginia Militia with the honors 
of war. Philip was Lieutenant-colonel of the 6th Regi- 
ment of Virginia Militia in the war of 1812. Anthony 
Spengler, a prominent and wealthy citizen, built "Speng- 

*App. Note 10. 



56 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCB. 

ler Hall " at Strasburg, Va. The remaining three were 
men of esteem in the community. Their male descend- 
ants nearly all enlisted in the Confederate Army, Col- 
onel Abraham Spengler being the last commander of 
the famous " Stonewall Brigade." In every battle in 
the east the Spengler soldiers of the South were arrayed 
aeainst their cousins of the North.* 

Company B of our regiment remained at Harper's 
Ferry guarding government property. With this com- 
pany we left the town the day following our arrival. 
On the evening of the second day's march, we bivouck- 
ed in an orchard where we found a half dozen or more 
swine which were quickly dispatched, and filled our 
haversacks with juicy pork. The following noon we 
reached the eastern outlet of Snicker's Gap in the Blue 
Ridge Mountains where a squadron of Union cavalry 
was watching a detachment of IMosby's famous guer- 
rillas, ensconced in the mountains, and to which in a 
bloody conflict they were driven headlong a few days 
before. Expecting a Confederate reinforcement, we 
were cautioned not to relax our march. As we were in 
danger of capture, with Andersonville Prison Pen in 
prospective, we continued to move until we reached the 
village of New Baltimore after midnight. 

The second day after, our haversacks were empty, 
and in the evening we were quartered in an ancient log 
grist-mill, with large overshot wheel on the outside, 
typical of all Virginia mills. The little log house ad- 
joining was tenanted by a poor white family, who sup- 
plied our famished stomachs with flap-jacks made of 
corn-meal and water, without salt, and about eight 
inches in diameter, for each of which we paid twenty- 
five cents. The next morning we reached our regiment 



*Spangler Annals, pp. 84-88, 94-108. 



FREDERICKSBURG. 0/ 

encamped near Warrenton where the commissary sup- 
plied our wants. We rested there nearly a week when 
news came that President Lincoln had relieved General 
McClellan as Commander of the Army of the Potomac. 
On November loth, the Second and Fifth Corps were 
drawn up in columns of regiments with intervals suffi- 
cient to give place for batteries, on both sides of the 
Centreville Pike. McClellan and his brilliant staff then 
passed between these gallant corps in taking a sad and 
last farewell of the army, amid the roar of cannon and 
cheers of the soldiery. The army certainly had a sin- 
cere affection for him, although it knew that as its 
commander he had not proven a success. His successor, 
Gen. Burnside, was also a great favorite with the army, 
and that, probably, was the reason for his selection as 
successor. 

To carry out the purpose of McClellan, the army was 
now divided into " three grand divisions." The Right 
Grand Division, under Sumner, was composed of the 
Second and Ninth Corps, the Centre Grand Division of 
the Third and Fifth Corps, and the Left Grand Division 
of the First and Sixth Corps. A numerous artillery, 
accompanied each division in these three grand divis- 
ions. The cavalry remained under the command of 
Gen. Pleasanton. The total present for duty of the 
army on March loth, is said to have been 127,574 offi- 
cers and men. 

Our Right Grand Division immediately began the 
march for the Rappahannock. The Second Corps, 
tinder Gen. Couch, reached the river opposite Freder- 
icksburg, November 17, when a short artillery duel 
ensued. There was on the south bank but a small force 
of Confederates, un-entrenched, on the heights behind 
the city. Our infantry could have crossed the river at a 



58 MY UTTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

ford at Falmouth, a short distance above. Gen. Sum- 
ner proposed to cross, but Gen. Burnside deemed it in- 
advisable and impracticable — a fatal mistake, as subse- 
quent developments proved. 

The condition of the army was, perhaps, especially 
in morale, better than it had ever been in its history. 
By tactical manoeuvring the army had gotten between 
the two wings of Lee's army, and Burnside's unpardon- 
able delay alone enabled Lee to bring Longstreet and 
Jackson together at Fredericksburg. 

In the latter part of November, our brigade. Gen. 
Palmer commanding, was moved to Belle Plains, the 
nearest landing on the Potomac, about eight miles dis- 
tant from Fredericksburg. We were sent there to un- 
load commissary and quartermaster stores from a fleet of 
transports and canal boats. In unloading one of the 
steamers, I saw roasting in a pan a succulent pig which 
made me ravenous. The continued presence of the 
cook, alone prevented its disappearance. The weather 
was cold and it rained a great deal, often mingled with 
snow. As we had no tents or shelter of any kind, and 
the plain being low, flat and impervious, causing water 
to stand inches deep, we suffered intensely. On several 
occasions we had to stand up all night. 

The complaints were loud and deep, but without 
redress. In this dilemma, I conceived a justifiable rem- 
edy for at least a few of us. With an air ot authority, 
I went upon one of a score or more canal boats filled 
with tents, and asked the soldier on guard whether this 
was one of Quarter-master Captain Pitkin's boats, and 
upon receiving an affirmative reply, I stated that I was 
commanded to secure one of his tents. Believing me, 
he allowed me to take a large one which I had the 
greatest difficulty in carrying to our company. To pre- 




4v^'*** 



From Harper's. 



HOSPITAL SCENE, AS SEEN BY THE RESERVES, p 39) 




From Harper's. 



A BATTLE WITH MOSBY'S GUERRILLAS, p 56) 



FREDERICKSBURG. 59' 

vent discovery, I cut off about two feet of the lower 
part of the tent, and it was even then large enough to 
afford needed shelter to a half-dozen of our company. 
Many inquiries were made as to where and how I got 
the tent, but I deemed it inadvisable to give the " snap " 
away for fear that others might adopt the remedy and 
fail, with martial penalties imposed upon all. In view of 
the extreme suffering, the taking was in equity adjudged 
a justifiable appropriation, without criminal intent. 

After about two weeks in the performance of this ser- 
vice, during which our provisions were always plentiful, 
and considerable regimental drill, we marched back 
through mud and snow in a violent storm to within two 
miles northeast of Fredericksburg, and rejoined our 
division. On the way we passed a quarter-master's tent, 
surrounded by barrels of pickled pork and beef. In one 
of the open barrels I espied a large beef tongue, which 
my agitated hand momentarily bereft of all moral sen- 
sibility, involuntarily appropriated. To my army cul- 
tured palate, it was, when fried later, the best- tasting 
morsel I ever ate. We camped on the north side of a 
hill covered with pine timber and snow. With no 
covering save thin woolen blankets, and the tempera- 
ture near zero and with no axes to fell timber to build 
fires, we nearly perished from exposure. 

Not wishing to die just yet, I determined next morn-, 
ing to forage, and nearby I discovered another quarter- 
master's depot in which there were no pork barrels, but 
piles of axes absolutely useless when unemployed. I 
returned to camp with a number, amid the plaudits of 
my shivering comrades, and given absolution. Even if 
apprehended I must have been acquitted under the triple 
pleas of Non animus furandi ; Necessitas not habet le- 
gem ; Inter arma silent leges. 



■60 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

The pine timber was soon felled and the fires started, 
but as the nights were intensely cold, they gave us 
but a modicum of comfort, and we still suffered in- 
tensely. In consequence, two of our company, Samuel 
C. Campbell, the tallest man of the regiment, and Dan- 
iel P. Raffensberger, were taken ill, and died from ex- 
posure. The smoke emitted from the burning green 
pine logs so blinded me that when paid there eleven 
dollars a month by the brigade paymaster, I could not 
distinguish a one-dollar greenback from a ten. 

On our departure from this icy camp, my Belle Plains 
tent, now used as a miniature company hospital, re- 
mained to shelter our Captain Seipe, Lieut. John J. 
Frick and two others who were compelled to remain 
in camp on account of sickness and frozen feet. It was 
not until after Christmas that shelter tents were sup- 
plied to the regiment, the only one in the division with- 
out them. The blame was put upon the Colonel, an 
accusation to which he emphatically and rightly de- 
murred. 

A shelter, or dog tent, is made of two or three pieces. 
Each man is provided with an oblong piece of stout 
muslin about six feet by four and a half, bordered all 
around by buttons and button-holes. These were but- 
toned and stretched over a cross-piece resting on two 
crotched stakes, or other available support. Two ot 
these pieces thus placed will make a weged-shaped tent 
about three and a half feet high at its apex and open at 
both ends. In rainy weather, a third partner is per- 
mitted to enter the firm with a piece of muslin of tri- 
angular shape and buttoned at the end confronting the 
storm. In this diminutive enclosure, haversacks and 
canteens can be stored for head-rests, leaving enough 
space to accommodate three men lying side by side. It 



fredp:ricksburg. 61 

will keep out rain, snow and wind, and is cosy enough 
within abbreviate limitations. 

No troops were ever more delighted when, on Decem- 
ber nth, we received orders to break camp on this 
snow-covered and inhospitable spot, and proceeded to 
Fredericksburg. On our way through the forest, wild 
turkeys flew over our heads, and all for the time being 
wished for shot guns. As we reached the large plain 
opposite Fredericksburg, we beheld a hundred or more 
guns on the north bank of the river bombarding the 
city for the purpose of dislodging a brigade of sharp- 
shooters concealed in the houses, enfilading our pon- 
toniers with a deadly fire. It was not till later in the 
day that the pontoon bridge to the city was finished. 
The inhabitants had received previous notice to quit the 
city, but many were disenclined or unable to leave and 
sought shelter in the cellars. That night we bivou- 
acked at a stately mansion, the Lacey House, opposite 
the city. It was very cold, and the ground being snow- 
covered, I was singularly fortunate in being able to 
sleep on a wet plank. 

As soon as the bridge was completed, with heavy 
loss, a brigade of infantry was thrown into the city and 
forced the enemy from house to house. Palfrey gave 
an account of this fierce struggle : 

"A very sharp experience befel a part of Hall's (Third) brigade of 
the Second Division, immediately after the Lacey House Bridge was com- 
pleted. The Seventh Michigan and Nineteenth and Twentieth Massa- 
chusetts, which had crossed in boats, belonged to his command. As soon 
as the Lacey House Bridge was completed, the three remaining regiments 
of his brigade crossed by it. It was growing dark, Howard's division, to 
which Hall's brigade belonged, was coming across, and the troops were 
crowding into an unmanageble mass near the bridge head. Hall sent back 
urgent requests to have the column halted the other side of the river, to 



62 MY LITTLIJ WAR EXPERIENCE. 

give time, (as he said) to fight the enemy in his own way, but was ordered 
to push ahead. He ordered Captain Macey, commanding the Twentieth 
Massachusetts, to clear the street leading from the bridge at all hazards. 
What follows is taken from his official report: ' I cannot presume to ex- 
press all that is due the officers and men of this regiment for the unflinch- 
ing bravery and splendid discipline shown in the execution of the order. 
Platoon after platoon was swept away, but the head of the column did not 
falter. Ninety-seven officers and men were killed or wounded in the 
space of about fifty yards.' " 

This infantry fire was terrific and continued until late 
in the night. A large number of houses were burning, 
shedding a lurid glare over the city and both banks of 
the river. The crash of the incessant house to house 
fighting in the darkness, the cheering and curses of the 
infuriated soldiers and the cries and shrieks of the af- 
frighted women and children, many of whom remained 
in the town, conspired to make a scene of indescribable 
horror. 

At daybreak members of our company crossed the 
bridge into the city, and finding soldiers breaking open 
barrels of whiskey, secured a tub which they partly 
filled with the tonic, and brought it to our company. 
On account of the intense cold, I was prevailed upon to 
take a drink — the first in my life — and it produced a 
warmth that was congenial, to say the least. 

Our division was the first to cross the pontoons the 
following morning. Upon reaching the opposite banks, 
we saw smoking ruins here and there and many dead 
Confederates along the houses skirting the river. One 
dead Confederate especially attracted my attention. He 
was in a standing position leaning against the corner ot 
a block-house with his gun in his hands, and all of the 
head above his mouth was taken ofi" by a shell. I have 
read in a magazine an article describing the attitude of 



j^iff^'nK, 




From Harper's. 

SUPPLY TRAINS FROM BELLE PLAINS STUCK IN THE MUD. p 58- 



K^,_ 






,#2=- 



-._ '^*'-^^SsSR_^j' 




""^^^?>i^*l,,/^ 



c- ^m^. 






= ^^. 






feC^- 



From Frank Leslie's. 

LAYING PONTOONS AT FREDERICKSBURG, ip 61) 



FREDERICKSBUKG. 63 

soldiers who maintained a lifelike attitude after death 
by reason of rigor mortis ; but none of these equalled 
in peculiarity the remarkable standing position of this 
beheaded soldier. 

The first street running parallel with the river was 
covered with Union and Confederate dead. One of the 
latter was lying in the middle of the street pierced 
with a shell, taking oflf both arms. The glassy eyes 
and the agonies of death pictured on the counte- 
nances of the dead made a ghastly sight. We tarried 
in the city during the day, awaiting the rapid transfer 
of the remainder of our Grand Division. Many ot 
the inhabitants having fled, the soldiers took posses- 
sion of the houses, in nearly all of which provisions 
were stored for the winter. Many of our men stuffed 
their bosoms with chewing tobacco. In one ot the 
cellars I found a box full of eggs, and emptying a 
jar of pickles, I filled it with the contents of several 
dozen. I also secured several pounds of brown sugar, 
and with a cleaned chicken which I bought from a 
comrade for fifteen cents, my haversack was filled to 
repletion. That night I slept on a mattress and under 
a featherbed in the Methodist Church. As the town 
had, when demanded, refused to surrender, and had to 
be carried by assault, with great loss, there was in this 
plundering nothing contrary to the laws of war. Ac- 
cording to martial regulations governing such cases, 
the conquerors had the rights of belligerents to sack 
and pillage. 

Early next morning, we prepared for battle. Gen. 
Lee had fully four weeks to fortify the range of hills 
back of the city, which were now occupied by the en- 
tire Confederate army. Three hundred Confederate 
guns were advantageously posted on every eminence 



g4 MY LITTLE WAR KXPERIENCB. 

ready to rake every foot of ground on which they could 
be approached. Nearly all our artillery was massed 
on the north bank of the Rappannock too distant to 
materially assist our troops in their attack, or to silence 
the numerous and protected batteries of the enemy. In 
fact they created some havoc among our own men until 
Burnside silenced them. At eleven o'clock the move- 
ment of our division, selected for the initial assault, be- 
^an As we marched along a street parallel to the river, 
we *saw on our right the concentrated fire of the Confed- 
erate artillery tearing through and silencing the five 
batteries brought across the river and stationed at the 
ed<.eofthecity. Screaming shells shattered the roofs 
of "many of the houses scattering the debris over our 

When we came to the street in which the railroad 
station then stood, leading directly to the range of hills 
covered with Confederate infantry and artillery, howl- 
ing projectiles made great gaps in the ranks of our divi- 
sion The fire was too hot and destructive for some of 
the 'soldiers who, convinced that "absence of body is 
better than presence of mind" sought shelter behind a 
brick ware-house. I would have given all my posses- 
sions, which were nil, as well as those of my relations, 
present and prospective, could I have honorably follow- 
ed suit An Ohio colonel in our front swore like a 
trooper " to keep up courage, as was the habit ot many 
officers and men, especially the officers of the regular 
army. West Pointers. , . . j i 

Emerging into the open we were about to deploy 
in line of battle under a deadly fire, when we en- 
countered a mill-race or canal, from four to six feet 
deep and fifteen foet wide, which ran clear around the 
citv in the rear. The existence of this canal was com- 



FREDERICKSBURG. 65 

municated by Gen. Couch to Burnside the day before. 
But the latter alleging personal acquaintance with the 
topography of Fredericksburg, indignantly denied its 
existence. It was impassable, except at the few street 
bridges, some of which had nothing left but stringers 
over which we had to pass in single file. 

It was first discovered in our division by the head of 
column, and was a most serious and embarassing ob- 
stacle, and very disconcerting under a raking storm of 
projectiles. After crossing, we were compelled for a 
considerable distance to march by columns of tour. 
While in this formation a shower of missiles created 
havoc in our ranks, one of which took oflF the head of 
Captain McLaughlin of Company E, scattering the 
brains over our company. In re-aligning, we had 
to climb over a rail fence, and as my brother 
reached the top rail, a cannon ball cut the third rail 
below, only three feet to my right. A second either 
way would have been a fatal shot to him, or three feet 
to the left would have obviated the infliction upon the 
reader of this commonplace and unvarnished narrative. 

As we came to the slope of the first elevation, we 
were met with a still more frightful fire of shell, grape 
and musketry. The Confederate artillery converged its 
fire on our hapless division, and our men were stricken 
down by hundreds. 

When we approached the crest of the hill in the im- 
mediate front of Marye's Heights we were ordered to 
lie down. As my haversack was filled to the top, as 
I have stated, my brother requested me to doff it as it 
would retard me in charging up the Heights, and I re- 
luctantly complied. Lying on my left was Eli Myers^ 
formerly a clerk in P. A. & S. Small's store, and on my 
right was William Clemens, and next to him, Frank. 



f)6 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

A bullet knocked off Clements' cap, and a moment later 
a shell exploded over us, a piece of which violently 
struck Myers in the back. I got up to assist in carry- 
ing him off the field, but being small, was pushed aside 
by others equally anxious to get beyond the range of 
fire, for we all felt that success was a forlorn hope. The 
wound proved fatal. We then moved forward and as 
we approached the stone wall, rifle pits and redoubts on 
the Heights, we poured in a heavy volley and charged, 
but were swept back a short distance by blazing mus- 
ketry, grape and canister, rising tier after tier, which no 
troops could withstand. As we were about to renew the 
charge the Confederates sprang from their breast works 
and charged, but were hurled back in confusion. Con- 
federate reinforcements arrived, all veteran marksmen, 
until they were four ranks deep and completely shelter- 
ed. These poured forth such an unremitting blast of 
deadly fire that our regiment again began to waver. It 
was then that Colonel Zinn, our heroic commander, 
seized the regimental flag staff in his left hand, and 
waving his sword with his right, cried out, " Stick to 
your standard, boys ! The One Hundred and Thirtieth 
never abandons its colors; give them another volley !" 
The words had scarcely left his lips, when his brain 
was pierced by a Confederate bullet. He was an in- 
trepid and accomplished officer, a strict disciplinarian, 
and an adept in tactics, and would, had he lived, have 
attained high rank. 

Shattered and broken, we fell back, meeting as our 
support General Hancock's First Division of our corps, 
moving towards the Heights. The General and his 
staff were mounted, and that he was unharmed in that 
enfilading fire was simply miraculous. As we retired 
past him, not knowing that we had encountered a wall 



FREDERICKSBURG. 67 

and terraces of fire, he made the air sulphurous with 
imprecations. Until then I did not know the English 
language was so rich in eruptive possibilities. A half 
an hour later, he and his division were also hurled 
into the city. If he was at all reminiscent, he must 
have felt sorry for upbraiding us. In the immediate 
front of these impregnable heights our losses were 
tenfold the enemy's — our causalties in the entire army 
being in the proportion of nearly three to one of the 
Confederates. A few yards from Gen. Hancock's posi- 
tion on the field, a severely wounded comrade exposed 
to the withering fire, begged to be carried to a spot less 
exposed. Frank and I tore a board from an adjoining 
fence and put him on it, but in lifting him, he shrieked 
with agony, and we had to abandon him. Just 
then a very tall German came hobbling along, hav- 
ing been shot in the ankle, and imploring our assistance, 
we got under his arms and helped him to shelter 
behind a garden wall in the hollow near the canal. Con- 
ceiving that we had done our full duty we, with thous- 
ands of others, then made a bee-line for the city, but a 
short distance off. 

In turning the first corner of the depot street a pro- 
jectile struck a soldier not more than six feet behind 
me. Many houses were already filled with wounded, 
and the pavements were littered with amputated arras 
and legs. The streets were filled with the returning 
remnants of repelled divisions, meeting other commands 
on their way to the field of carnage to be exposed in 
their turn to like pitiless, useless, hopeless slaughter. 
Nor did nightfall mercifully arrest this fruitless massa- 
cre; for it was not till 8 p. m. that the last of the brig- 
ades of Sumner and Hooker were hurled from the bloody 
field. 



68 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

The survivors of our company with its wounded, re- 
paired to a two-story brick house on the street running 
parallel and next to the Rappahannock. At nightfall, 
the boys began to bake " slapjacks " in the yard. The 
brisk fire was so vivid in the Egyptian darkness that it 
attracted the fire of the enemy, several shells passing 
over the house. The men were requested to desist, but 
were too hungry to refrain. About 7 o'clock, when 
asleep from sheer exhaustion on the first floor of the 
house, a spherical shell penetrated the brick wall, crash- 
ed through the washboard and fell on the floor scatter- 
ing the bricks and mortar debris all over the room, and 
affrighting everybody in it. Frank was sleeping in a 
rocking-chair near the wall, and my head was reposing 
on my canteen at his feet. His canteen between the 
chair and the wall was dinged, and the impact knocked 
his feet from under him. Fortunately, the fuse of the 
shell was spent, otherwise there would have been great 
loss of life in the crowded room. Fearing that other 
shells might lodge in the same place, the greater por- 
tion of the occupants went into the basement, soon to 
return and remain without further mishap until morning. 

In the house, at the time, was the owner, Mrs. Mills, 
a lady of intelligence and good breeding aged about 
thirty years, and her two prepossessing daughters, aged 
respectively about ten and twelve years. Of course they 
were in great consternation, when the shell penetrated 
the wall. In conversation they proved to be Confeder- 
ates to the core. 

In January, 1890, on my way to Florida, I stopped at 
Fredericksburg to survey the battle-field and cemetery. 
While in the city, I searched for this house, and dis- 
covered it by the new bricks which replaced those de- 
molished by the shell. Upon ringing the door-bell, a 




From Battles and Leaders of the Civil War. 

BOMBARDMENT OF FREDERICKSBRUG. 



p 61) 




From a Painting. 



A RECOLLECTION OF FREDERICKSBURG, (p 64) 



FREDERICKSBURG. 69 

lady of noble proportions and unusually handsome in 
face and figure appeared. After disclosing the object of 
my visit and on inquiry as to the whereabouts of the 
mother and daughters who occupied the premises dur- 
ing the battle, I was surprised when told that she was 
Mrs. Retta Mills Merchant, and one of the daughters in 
the house on that fearful night. The remarkable inci- 
cident created a friendship at once, and sending for her 
husband, Mr. Merchant, proprietor of the leading Fred- 
ericksburg newspaper, I was cordially invited to stay to 
tea. As time would not permit, I was compelled to de- 
cline. Mr. Merchant, however, was so pleased with the 
peculiar event, that he accompanied me on the train to 
Richmond. 

From the Fredericksburg Star, January 4, 1890: 

" Visited Old Scenes. 
Mr. E. W. Spangler, of York, Pa., paid the old Burg a visit last 
Thursday. During the late war he was a gallant soldier in the Federal 
Army end the night after the "battle took refuge with the wounded and 
remnants of his company in the home now occupied by the editor of the 
" Star,,' which he visited and was kindly shown through. His memory 
was very vivid, recollecting all positions of the furniture and the place 
where a spent shell passed through the wall of the house that night and 
fell on the Soor within two feet of his head. The wife of the editor was 
also in the house that terrible night, and both remembered the fright that 
ponderous shell occasioned to all the inmates." 

The picture of the Mills House is from a photograph 
taken in March, 1901, with Mrs. Merchant on the porch. 
The cross represents the place where the shell entered. 

The two armies stood facing each other on the two 
succeeding days. Having left my haversack on the 
field, and with no commissary stores in the city, I be- 
came so hungry, that on the 15th I determined to re- 
cover it if possible, but the pickets refused to let me pass. 



70 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

Despite the terrible carnage of the disastrous 13th, 
Burnside, horribile dictu, determined to renew the con- 
test next day with his former Ninth Corps, and on the 
very point where the Confederate lines had been proved 
to be impregnable at a cost of 10,000 men. Butchery 
as fruitless and still more demoralizing would doubtless 
have been incurred but for the timely and forcible re- 
monstrance of stern old Sumner. 

During the night of the 15th, in a heavy storm, the 
army, without mishap, recrossed the Rappahannock? 
and tramped through mud in a cold and driving rain 
that was most disheartening and depressing. There is 
no denying it that the army was dispirited, not due so 
much to exposure and hardships, as to the fact that there 
was inflicted upon it a most incompetent, obstinate and 
reckless commander, who was responsible alone for the 
fruitless results of misdirected valor. 



Description of the Battle of Fredericksburg. 

By the Count of Paris, and Generals French 
AND Couch. Gen. Franklin's Assertion that 
Gen. Burnside's going to sleep Lost us the 
Battle. His Erroneous IvETTer and Conclu- 
sion. Gen. Burnside's Utter Incompetency. 

GEN. SUMNER, in his report of the battle of 
Fredericksburg, says : 

" I was ordered to select the corps to make the attack. I selected the 
divisions of French and Hancock, two of the most gallant officers of the 
army — and two divisions, neither of them had ever turned their backs to 
the enemy — they did all that men could do." 

The Count of Paris, in his admirable history of the 
Civil War, gives the following graphic description of 
the battle in front of Marye's Heights : 

"To French's division of Couch's corps was assigned the perilous task 
of leading the attack, that of Hancock was to follow and support it. The 
Confederates awaited, without moving, the attack of their adversaries, but 
as soon as they saw the town of Fredericksburg filled with Federal troops, 
who had been massed there after crossing the river, their artillery opened 
its fire upon this doomed city. The heights of Marye's Hill were imme- 
diately circled with a double crown of white smoke, the bluish tinge of 
which could not be mistaken for the lingering wreaths of the morning fog, 
and which revealed the strength of the means of defence accummulated 



72 MY LITTLR WAR EXPERIENCE. 

by Lee at this point. This prelude should have made Burnside feel the 
rashness of his undertaking, but his purpose was irrevocably 6xed. He 
gave the signal of attack to his right, and French's column, emerging into 
the plain, soon diverted the attention of the enemy's cannoniers from the 
town. 

"These columns emerging by way of the cemetery, were obliged to defile 
over the two or three bridges that still remained in order to cross the large 
draining ditch, and to deploy afterward on the other side under the mur- 
derous fire of all of McLaw's batteries. The cannon-balls committed a 
fearful ravage among those deep and almost immovable masses. They 
were not, however, staggered, and as soon as the line was formed, Kim- 
ball's brigade, followed at a short distance by two other brigades, ad- 
vanced against the stone wall adjoining the road behind which were posed 
the Confederate brigades of Cook and Cobb. For the space of six hun- 
dred metres, over which these troops had to pass, every step in the advance 
was marked by dead bodies ; they closed their ranks without stopping. 
When within two hundred metres of the enemy, they were received by 
discharges of musketry, every shot of which, aimed at leisure, made sure 
of a victim. 

" Hunt's artillery had vainly endeavored to silence the batteries posed on 
Marye's Hill; the distance was too great. They disdained to reply to him, 
devoting all their attention to the assailants, and Hunt himself was obliged 
to intermit his fire for fear of killing more friends than foes. The field- 
pieces of Couch's corps could not accompany their infantry;* they would 
have been dismounted in an instant. French's soldiers, however, were 
still pushing forward, but at fifty paces from the wall, the first line, which 
was reduced to a handful of men, halted and began to skirmish. The two 
brigades, that were following could not pass beyond this fatal point, and 
after a single discbarge they retired, leaving one-third of their comrades 
on the ground. 

" Hancock immediately took their place. This brilliant officer, who had 
always inspired the soldiers with the ardor by which he was himself ani- 
mated, was in command of well-tried troops. The sight of the massacre 
of their companions and the formidable positions that rose before them. 



*Note: This is error; five batteries were in action at the street outlets, 
as already stated. 








From Frank Leslie. 

CHARGE OF THE SECOND CORPS ON MARYE'S HEIGHTS- 'p 65) 




From a Painting. 

CHARGE ON THE RAMPARTS, FREDERICKBURG. 'p 66) 



DESCRIPTION OF THE BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG. 73 

did not cause them to hesitate for a single instant. Three flags, planted 
by French's soldiers within eighty or one hundred metres of the enemy's 
line, floated amid the cannon-shot and musket-balls alone above the dead 
bodies that surrounded them." 

"They seemed to call for new combatants, or rather new victims. 
Meagher's Irish brigade was the first to rush forward. A portion of 
French's troops, who had felt reluctant to leave the vicinity of this field of 
carnage, joined, and the rest of Hancock's division followed close. How- 
ard's division carae out of the town for the purpose of following in the 
tracks of Hancock should the latter meet with any success. On the left, 
Wilcox had deployed the Ninth Corps in front of Pickett's Confederate 
Division; the divisions of Sturgis and Getty extended from Hazel Run to 
Deep Run, while that of Burns was on the other side of the latter stream, 
near Smith's Corps. The embankment of an unfinished railroad covered 
Hancock's left to within a certain distance of the stonewall; his centre, 
as well as his right, was utterly unprotected. Nevertheless, his whole line 
reached and passed beyond the flags planted by French; but when within 
twenty or twenty-five metres of the wall, it also halted, and all those who 
had gone beyond were instantly struck down. The Federal line wavered, 
without, however, falling far back, while, enveloped ia smoke, it opened a 
■sharp fire upon the defenders of the stone wall. From time to time a 
group of soldiers was seen advancing to reach the obstacle; but this 
movement, always unsuccessful, was soon followed by a speedy retreat, 
which brought back the small number of those who had escaped death. 
The Federals, however, maintained themselves; and if they could not 
gain ground, they sufiEered themselves to be decimated without abandon- 
ing the place. Their losses were enormous, but their adversaries were 
also beginning to suffer; in vain did they shelter themselves behind the 
wall, in vain did the artillery which fired over their heads, throw its 
shrapnel into the midst of the assailants ; their ranks were fast thinning 
off." 

"The two brigades which, up to this time, had alone defended the stone 
wall, lost their two commanders at the same moment — General Cobb killed 
and General Cook seriously wounded. But numerous re-inforcements were 
at hand. Ransom's brigade had come to the relief of Cook's; Kershaw 
had been sent by McLaws to succor Cobb's soldiers. These new troops 
were placed in rear of those they came to support; and owing to a slight 



74 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

inclination of the ground they occupied on the road, they were •nabled to 
©pen a well-sustained fire of four ranks upon the assailants. The Fed- 
erals had no hope left. The bravest among them acknowledged that it 
would be folly to remain any longer before a position which it was impos- 
sible to carry." 

Gen. Couch describes the slaughter as follows : 

" A few minutes after noon French's division charged in the order of 
Kimball's, Andrew's and Palmer's brigades, a part of Kimball's men 
getting into the cluster of houses in the fork of the road. Hancock fol- 
lowed them in the order of Zook's, Meagher's and Caldwell's brigades, 
the two former getting nearer to the stone wall than any brigade which 
followed them. 

" Without a clear idea of the state of affairs at the front, since the 
smoke and light fog veiled everything, I sent word to French and Han- 
cock to carry the enemy's works by storm. Then I climbed the steeple 
of the Court House, and from above the haze and smoke got a clear view 
of the field. Howard, who was with me, says I exclaimed, "Oh, great 
God! see how our men, our poor fellows are falling! " I remember that 
the whole plain was covered with men, prostrate and dropping, the live 
men running here and there and in front closing upon each other, and the 
wounded coming back. The commands seemed to be mixed up. I had 
never before seen fighting like that, notliing approaching it in terrible 
uproar and destruction. There was no cheering on the part of the menr 
but a stubborn determination to obey orders and do their duty. I don't 
think there was much feeling of success. As they charged the artillery 
fire would break their formation and they would get mixed; then they 
would close up, go forward, receive the withering infantry fire, and those 
who were able would run to the houses and fight as best they could ; and 
then the next brigade coming up in succession would do its duty and melt 
like snow coming down on warm ground." 

In Gen. Lee's memoirs is found the following : 

"' During the attack on the right, preparations were in progress to assail 
the Confederate centre. Dense masses of troops which had been pre- 
viously concentrated in and about Fredericksburg were now formed in col- 
umns of attack to be led against Marye's Heights. About noon the attack 



DESCRIPTION OF THE BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG, 75 

commenced. Column and column advanced to the assault, to be hurled 
back with terrible slaughter. Attack after attack was hopelessly renewed 
until the stoutest heart quaked at the dreadful carnage that ensued." 

Greely, in his *' American Conflict," says: 

" Braver men never smiled at death than those that climbed Marye's 
Heights that fatal day; their ranks ploughed through and torn to pieces 
by Rebel batteries even in the process of formation; and when, at heavy 
cost, they had reached the foot of the hill from behind which Confederate 
brigades of infantry mowed them down like grass, exposing but their 
heads to our bullets, and these only while themselves firing.'' 

"Thus Hancock's and French's corps were successively sent up against 
those slippery heights,' girdled with batteries, rising, tier after tier, to its 
crest, all carefally trained upon the approaches from Fredericksburg; 
while that fatal stone wall— so strong that even artillery could make no 
impression upon it — completely sheltered Barksdale's brigade, which so 
soon as our charging columns came within rifle shot, poured into their 
faces the deadliest storm of musketry." 

In Picket's famous and historic charge at Gettysburg, 
his men were not subjected to such a terribly destructive 
and deadly fire. This hopeless slaughter is well ex- 
pressed in a boast of an artillery officer of Lee that "the 
guns were so placed that 'a chicken could not live' 
within the concentric arc of their fire on the plains 
below." Col. E. P. Alexander, Lee's Chief of Artillery, 
says : " While I was looking at Burnside's dense 
columns so swarming through the fire of our guns 
towards Marye's Hill, Gen. Lee said : ' It is well that 
war is so terrible, or we would grow too fond of it.' " 

Gen. Wm. F. Smith, commanding the Sixth Corps of 
Gen. Franklin's left v/ing, in a late (1902) interview, 
says: 

" A few days after that, about December 1st, 1862,1 was at General 
Burnsid's headquarter't and he said to me: " 1 want you to come and take 
a ride with me." We rode out along the river bank and he pointed out to 
me every projecting bluEE on our side. ' Do you see what splendid artillery 



76 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

positions these are? ' he asked. I answered ' Yes,' not having the least 
idea of what was to come. 

" 'Well,' he said, 'I have never given my reserve artillery a chance, 
and I am going to do it now.' 

" He hadn't, as a matter of fact, had the reserve artillery very long to 
give it a chance. His remark impressed me so much that I could not for- 
get it; it was exactly what McClellan had said to me at the Seven Days' 
fight before Richmond. 

" ' I am going to cross here at the town of Fredericksburg,' General 
Burnside continued; 'you will cross down below. I don't want you to 
say anything about this to anybody, but I have made up my mind, and 
intend to begin the battle here.' 

" ' Well,' I said, 'there's no trouble, General, about crossing this river 
at almost any point. But you see those hills over there ? ' pointing to 
Marye's Heights, back of Fredericksburg. They ran down for about a 
mile and a half, I think, below our crossing. 

"Oh, yes, he replied, ' but I know where Lee's troops are, and I can 
get across and surprise him.' 

" 'If you can, do that,' I answered, 'there is nothing more to be said,' 
and I returned to my headquarters." 

Prior to December ist, Gen. Burnside had determined 
to cross the main army at Shrenker's Neck, fourteen 
miles below Fredericksburg, and make the attack on 
Lee's right where the country was comparatively level 
and the defensive troops easily assailable. As four weeks 
elapsed since Sumner's arrival opposite the city, and two 
days, December nth and 12th, wasted in laying the 
pontoons and getting the army across the Rappahan- 
nock at Fredericksburg, Lee, of course, could not then 
have been taken by surprise, and Burnside again revert- 
ed to the original plan. Gen. Smith says further : 

" There were now (December 12th) really two days gone. I think it 
was somewhere about 3 o'clock that Burnside came down to our end of the 
line. We all knew him very well and had been on such terms with him 
that we could say to him anything that we thought in regard to the plan. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG. 77 

Oh that day Franklin, Reynolds and I had determined that the only pos- 
sible course for our side then was to have the left wing attack the rebels 
in strong force. We suggested to Burnside to put 40,000 men, which was 
about the strength of the left grand division, into an assault upon the rebel 
right. The Third Corps, which was on the left bank of the stream, 
should come over early and relieve my corps in guarding the pontoon 
bridges, so that we could be in position in line of battle for the coming 
action. The men could sleep on their arms and at daylight of the 13th be 
up and off. 

" So Burnside went along the lines and was cheered, as all great sold- 
iers are, and when he turned back Franklin called him into our tent and 
told him that we had gone over the whole situation, and what we desired to 
suggest as the best way to reach the enemy. Burnside listened to it all, 
said ' yes, yes, yes,' as if in full acquiescence, and we thought— though I 
cannot recollect that he said positively that he would do it— that he had 
accepted our plan of battle. As he went away Franklin said to him: 

* Now, Burnside, you understand that we have a good deal of work to 
do to-night to get ready for this movement, and you will have to send us 
the orders very soon.' 

" ' Oh, yes; you shall have them directly,' he replied. 

"Those are possibly not his exact words, but that is the sense of them. 
Franklin said to him again that the Third Corps wolild have to come over 
early to relieve the Sixth Corps, to allow me to go into my proper place in 
line and so that the men might have their full night's rest before the in- 
tended assault. 

" We waited and waited. Franklin sent, I think, two or three messen- 
gers that night to headquarters to ask Burnside to hurry the order, saying 
that it was imperative that we have it soon. 

"The three of us were together until about 2 o'clock of the morning of 
the 13th. when Reynold's said: "Well, I have a hard day's work ahead 
of me, and I am going to get some sleep.' Franklin and I, however, sat 
up there until perhaps half-past 7 o'clock in the morning, when the orders 
came. 

" What those orders were and the rest of the story are settled matters 
of history. The attack that was ordered was not that which Franklin had 
suggested. He was permitted to use, for the essential part of the move- 
ment, only a small part of his force, while the great bulk of it was tied up 



78 MY LITTI.K WAR KXTKRIKNCE. 

by waiting orders. The slaughter and sacrifice that ensued are well knows. 
I have not ths slightest doubt that, if the order had come in time to use 
the 40,000 in the left grand division, as Franklin wished to use them, our 
success would have been complete." 

Gen. Rurnside did not issue the orders he promised 
General Franklin, nor in the time promised. Burnside's 
order to Franklin was to make a mere reconnoissance in 
his front as the main attack would be at Fredericks- 
burg. Gen. Burnside testified before the Congressional 
Committee on the Conduct of the War that he started 
this order at 4 o'clock on the morning of the 13th- 
The order was dated by Gen. Parker (his chief of staff) 
5:55 A. M. Gen. Buinside was therefore in error. 

General Smith further says in this interview : 

" There is a good deal to be said as to the battle of Fredericksburg 
about things that took place behind the curtain. There was a staff officer 
who stated that some time after daylight on the morning of the 13th he 
went up into the cupola of the Phillips house, which was Burnside's head- 
quarters, to watch the movements on the other side of the river, and 
shortly afterwards he heard some one coming up the stairs, and on look- 
around be saw that it was Burnside, and that Burnside said to him : 
" ' I am so sleepy that I must lie down and take a nap.' 
" Of course, personally, I know nothing about this story. General 
Franklin, however, has told me it several times. We have frequently 
discussed the matter together. Whatever Franklin told me was as good as 
though I had heard it myself, because we had always the greatest confi- 
dence in each other. 

It was doubtless this episode that led Gen. Franklin 
more than eigeteen years after the battle to write the 
subjoined letter to Gen. St. Clair A. MulhoUand : 

" Office of Colt's Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Co. 

Hartford, Conn., April 29th, 1881. 
" My Dear General: — 

I only received your article on the Battle of Fredericksburg, and have 
read it with much pleasure. I think that you began it at the right date. 




From a Painting. 



AN EVENING IN CAMP AT THE FRONT, p 199j 




From a Photograph. 



THE MILLS' HOUSE, FREDERICKSBURG, 'p 68) 



DESCRIPTION OF THE BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBUkCi. 79 

that of the removal of McClellan, and I think that you have told the 
ghastly story as well as it can be told. Of course I can only speak defi- 
nitely of my own command, the left wing. Burnside's going to sleep, 
instead of issuing his promised orders, is at the bottom of all the trouble. 
For this he should never be forgiven. 

What a delightful monograph would a " History of Burnside's Career 
as the Commander of the Army of the Potomac," beginning where you 
began and ending with the order relieving him from the command, telling 
the story of order No. 8, &c., &c. 

Will you say to Gen. McCandless that I have not forgotten his request 
for a copy or copies of my pamphlet. I have none by me just now, but 
will send them when I get some which I hope soon to get. 

Truly your friend, 

W. B. Franklin. 
Gen. St. C. A. Mulholland, 
Phila., Pa." 

The facts already related do not justify Gen. Franklin 
in his conclusion that "Burnside's going to sleep, in- 
stead of issuing his promised orders, is at the bottom of 
all the trouble." " The bottom of all the trouble" was 
that he did not intend to issue the order to make 
the main attack on the left as Gens. Franklin, support- 
ed by Reynolds and Smith, earnestly requested. Sleep 
had nothing to do with the order issued. Besides, the 
order started at 5:55 A. M., on the morning of the 13th, 
whereas, it was only shortly after daylight on the morn- 
ing of that day that Burnside, in the cupola, said, " I 
.am so sleepy that I must lie down and take a nap." 
The sun rose on that day at 7:16, and "to watch the 
movements on the other side of the river," in dark- 
ness, at 5:55 would have been impossible. 

As as a matter of history, Gen. Burnside had no plan 
of attack whatever when he crossed the river, and up to 
the morning of the 13th was vacillating in purpose. 
Undoubtedly, the wisest and only practical course to be 



80 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

pursued was to make his attack with the whole army on 
Franklin's front on the left. In fact, Lee was quite as- 
tonished when he ascertained to a certainty that Burn- 
side's main attack would be made on fortified and im- 
pregnable Marye's Heights. It is a familiar military 
maxim that a general should never do what his adversary 
wishes him to do. Utterly incapable of commanding 
so large an army, Burnside lost his head the moment he 
confronted so able and formidable an adversary as Lee. 
He did not class with the chieftain of whom the poet 
Horace said : " Impavidum ferient ruinae." 



After the Battle of Fredericksburg. 

Taken to the Hospitals at Washington and 
Philadelphia. Minister to a Wounded Con- 
federate AS HE Dies. Thaddeus Stevens in 
Congress. His Intellectual Supremacy, and 
Invaluable Services in the Cause of the Union. 
Noble Tribute by his Contemporaries. Henry 
Ward Beecher's War Lectures. His Great 
Speeches for the Union in Great Britain. He 
Confronts Angry and Violent Mobs. Converts 
A Hostile Public Sentiment at a Critical 
Period. Fierce and Ludicrous Scenes. 

OWING to exposure from rain and cold I became 
ill, and after an examination by two army sur- 
geons was placed on a train and taken to Acquia 
Creek on the Potomac, thence by boat to Washington. 
During the battle, my left worn-out pantaloon leg was 
torn off, and when I left the boat at Washington for the 
hospital, my only covering for the limb was underwear. 
I was taken in an ambulance to a branch of the Trinity 
Episcopal Church Hospital and placed in ward H. The 
building was, I think, at the corner of Third Street and 
a street about three blocks North of Pennsylvania Ave- 



8J MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

nue, and used before the war as a ware-house. After I 
was able to sit up and walk around the ward, a kind 
Washington lady supplied me with a cinnamon-colored 
pair of trousers. 

A week or two after my arrival a very large and se- 
verely wounded Confederate soldier was brought into 
the ward. Believing that he would soon die, he re- 
quested the attending surgeon to get some one to read 
the Bible to him. I was selected, and while reading as 
the extemporized Chaplain of the room, he expired. 

Being convalescent, towards the latter part of January, 
1862, I was permitted, when the weather was fine, to 
take brief outings and in one of these I had a tin-type 
picture taken on Pennsylvania Avenue, which is repro- 
duced as a frontispiece. The black great-coat and blue 
trousers, most ample in proportion on my slender frame, 
were issued from the hospital. 

I also visited Congress then in session. By means of 
diagrams of the Senate and House, I soon knew by sight 
the leading members of both branches. The political 
hatred between the Republican and Democratic mem- 
bers was rancorously bitter, and I heard some of the 
most brilliant and acrimonious discussions of the war 
period. It was easy to discern that Thaddeus Stevens, 
the founder and champion of common schools of his 
adopted State, the unchallenged head of the Pennsylva- 
nia Bar, the Great Commonor, and the Metternich of 
Republicanism, stood in point of eloquence, wit, satire, 
intellect, and courage, head and shoulders above every 
member in either House of Congress. He was not only 
an authority on political questions, but on finance, poli- 
tical economy, constitutional law and the laws of na- 
tions and war, having been a profound student of Adam 
Smith, Turgot, Neckar, Peel, Grotius, Bynkershoek and 



AFTER THE BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG. 83 

Vattel. He was a born leader, had absolute dominion 
of the House, and commanded universal party obedience. 
It is but necessary to read his admirable biography, 
written by Congressman McCall, to appreciate the in- 
tellectual supremacy of the greatest of all Pennsylva- 
nians, Benjamin Franklin, perhaps, alone excepted. It 
seems strange that the five greatest Pennsylvanians, 
were exotics, — Benjamin Franklin, of Boston ; Robert 
Morris of England; Albert Gallatin, of Geneva; Gen. 
Meade, born in Spain, and Thaddeus Stevens, of 
Vermont. 

Mr. Stevens had Pluto's iron countenance, and yet 
was bending, kind and philanthropic. The House had 
great Parliamentary ability. It had its Washburn, its 
Wilson, Bingham and its Blaine. It had but one Thad- 
deus Stevens. I beheld Sumner, Trumbull, Wilson, 
Howe, Wade and other Senatorial magnates in constant 
consultation with him in his seat, thus evincing a merit- 
ed regard for a collossal and overpowering genius.* 

Not having fully recovered my strength, and unfit to 
return to the army, I, with many other convalescents, 
was sent to Philadelphia to make room in Washington 
hospitals for the more severely wounded from the battle- 
field hospitals. At Philadelphia I was taken to an im- 
provised hospital at the northwest corner of Broad and 
Cherry Streets. The only person I knew in Philadel- 
phia was William R. Stouch, then salesman in the 
wholesale dry-goods house of Ludwig, Kneedler & Co., 
which sold large invoices of goods to my former em- 
ployer, Peter Wiest. He called on me frequently at the 
hospital and later entertained me at dinner at his hotel. 
To me, after a diet largely of codfish hash, it was a Lu- 
cullus feast. He introduced me to his friends as his 
*App. Note 11. 



84 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

hero York soldier boy, and I have always been deeply 
grateful for the consideration and hospitality shown me. 

The passenger coaches of the Pennsylvania Railroad 
were then drawn by horses to the station at Market 
and Eleventh Streets. The freight depot embraced the 
Market Street section of Wanamaker's present Empo- 
rium. One of the pleasantest features of the city were 
the four squares of shade and greenery, full of stately 
and venerable trees, at the intersection of Market and 
Broad Streets, known collectively as Penn Square. Lit- 
tle did William Penn think when he laid out these hand- 
some little parks for the health and recreation of the 
populace for all time, that in the Nineteenth Century 
impious hands would build upon them a huge and very 
costly City Hall of doubtful architectural beauty, which 
arrested not only the business extension of Market Street 
westward, but bisected and forever ruined Broad Street, 
the noblest boulevard of the country. 

A week before my departure for my regiment, I, with 
others, was taken to the top gallery or " Family Circle " 
of the Academy of Music to hear Clara Louise Kellogg 
in grand Italian Opera. She was then in the apogee of 
her lyrical triumphs, and sang with exquisite force the 
dramatic role of Gilda, in Verdi's Rigoletto. 

There, also, for the first time, I heard Rev. Henry 
Ward Beecher, the distinguished and eloquent preacher 
and lecturer, deliver one of his famous patriotic war 
lectures. 

The oratory and courage of Mr. Beecher, whom 
Spurgeon, the great English divine, called the " Shakes- 
peare of the Anglo-Saxon pulpit," were shown at their 
best when, in 1863, he repaired at his own expense to 
Great Britain to deliver a number of addresses for the 
purpose of converting the hostile governing caste and 




From a Painting. 

THE STANDARD BEARER FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH. ( pp 66, 199 




From a Painting. 



AFTER THE BATTLE. ( pp 72, 74. 200' 



AFTER THE BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG. 85 

the aristocratic and business classes to the cause of the 
North. He offered his services at a very critical period 
of the war when the entire country was black with 
thunder clouds and ablaze with lightnings of war. 
Public opinion was wavering between support of the 
North and support of the South. He delivered speeches 
in Liverpool, Manchester, Edinburg, Glasgow and Lon- 
don, which were masterpieces of oratory. In facing the 
turbulent and hostile audiences he exhibited grit and 
courage of the first order. When Mr. Beecher was 
asked to raise the flag on Fort Sumter, Abraham Lin- 
coln, in 1865, remarked, "but for his speeches in Eng- 
land, there might have been no flag to raise." These 
voluntary and patriotic services entitled him to at least 
a single notch in the annals of his country, and yet not 
a history of the war even deigns to mention them. 

Mr. Beecher's philippics were especially hurled against 
the institution of slavery. Before his arrival in Eng- 
land, a leccuring firm put up the idea of raising lectur- 
ers to go through England and turn the common people 
away from the North and toward the South. By the 
time he got through with his forcible and unanswerable 
speeches, this scheme was abandoned, and the enthusi- 
asm of the whole country, outside of a portion of the 
aristrocratic classes, went strongly in the other direction. 
It constituted one of the greatest triumphs ever achieved 
by an orator. Everywhere the weavers and the labor- 
ers, who, by the cotton famine were thrown out of em- 
ployment and in the greatest distress, continued hostile 
to slavery, and in consequence, staunch and true to the 
right instincts of the laboring man. They never 
flinched and the cause of the North was successful in 
England by reason of the fidelity of the great working 
common people of England, 



86 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

Mr. Beecher's own humorous and graphic descriptions 
of his encounters with these howling mobs will be 
found very entertaining and interesting reading.* 

*App. Note 12. 



Chancellorsville. 

Return to the Army in Front of Fredericks- 
burg. Winter Dug-outs. Picket Duty. Bat- 
tle OF Chancellorsville. The Rout of the 
Eleventh Corps. That Dreadful Saturday 
Night; Both Armies Mixed Up in Total Dark- 
ness. Horrors of the Shrieking Wounded, 
Mingled Curses. Havoc Wrought by the Ar- 
tillery. 

IN the beginning of March, 1863, I returned to the 
regiment then in winter quarters about two miles 
northeast of Fredericksburg. The winter bunks 
consisted of oblong holes dug in the ground about two 
and a half feet and lined with logs projecting about 
three feet above the ground, over which upon uprights 
and a cross-piece were stretched our shelter tents. At 
the exterior of one end was a chimney-place about three 
feet square, topped with empty commissary barrels 
about eight feet high, which constituted the chimney. 
The bunk which gave me shelter was, prior to my arrival, 
occupied by three other comrades, who kindly invited 
me to become the fourth joint tenant. It required 
tight squeezing to enable all four to lie on our backs at 



88 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

night. In the chimney-corner was a nest of half a 
dozen or more mice, which, although frequently running 
over our faces at night, were never disturbed. 

Our regiment was assigned to picket duty on the 
banks of the Rappahannock immediately opposite 
Fredericksburg. Picket duty forms a very responsible 
part of army service when an alert enemy is in front. 
The advance pickets are under the command of a cap- 
tain or lieutenant for a given space on the front line, 
the pickets pacing to and fro on their beats. The line 
is divided into three parts, each of which is called a 
" relief," the three being known as the first, second and 
third relief respectively, and under the command of a 
sergeant or corporal. Each relief must stand guard 
two hours on and four hours off for twenty-four hours. 
Each picket is furnished with the countersign which is 
changed daily. About midnight, a body of officers, 
known as " The Grand Rounds " goes all along the 
line, examining every picket to see that '* all is well." 
To sleep on the picket line is death. The Rappahan- 
nock separating the armies, picketing did not require 
the usual degree of caution and vigilance, especially as 
the pickets of both armies were on the most friendly 
terms. Occasionally, tiny boats with sails were sent 
over to them with coffee, and returned freighted with 
tobacco. The Confederates had several drag seines 
with which they caught Immolested considerable quanti- 
ties of shad. 

Towards the last of April a public meeting was held 
at Fredericksburg, at which some fiery orators from 
Richmond exhorted the troops amid rapturous cheer- 
ing. I was on the picket line that night directly oppo- 
site the city and parts of the impassioned speeches were 
audible. 



CHANCRLLORSVILLE. 89 

Gen. Burnside's usefulness as Commander of the 
Army of the Potomac ended January 26, 1863. In his 
delirium, Major Generals Franklin, Wm. F. Smith and 
other officers of high rank were relieved from duty with 
the army. Major General Hooker with Brigadier-Gen- 
eralsBrooks, and Newton, were designated in an order 
for ignominious dismissal. This general order was sub- 
mitted to President Lincoln, who, instead of approving 
the order, decided to relieve Burnside from command, 
and appointed Hooker in his stead. 

A feature introduced during Hooker's administration 
was the adoption of corps badges. The device for the 
Second Corps was the trefoil, or clover-leaf, the first 
division having in red, the second in white and the 
third in blue. General Couch was now the vSecond 
Corps commander, and the division commanders were 
Gen. Hancock of the first. Gen. Gibbon of the second, 
and Gen. French of the third division. 

When Gen. Hooker assumed command of the Army 
of the Potomac, its morale was at a low ebb and the 
desertions numerous. He devoted the two ensuing 
months in reorganizing it and exalting the spirits of its 
men. He had now ready for action about 100,000 in- 
fantry, 10,000 artillery, and 13,000 cavalrymen. He 
opened the Chancellorsville campaign towards the last 
of April by dispatching Gen. Stoneman with nearly all 
the cavalry towards Richmond to destroy the interven- 
ing telegraphs, railroads and bridges in order to cut off 
Lee's source of supplies and to intercept the Confederate 
Army in the contemplated compulsory retreat. Hooker, 
with his left wing, made a feint to cross the Rappaha- 
nock some distance below Fredericksburg where Lee's 
right, under Jackson, was located. 

On April 30th, Hooker, with the main portion of his 



Vi) MY UTTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

army, made a successful crossino^ of the Rappahannock 
over pontoon bridges at the various fords from five to 
ten miles above Fredericksburg. General Sedgwick, 
with 28,000 men, remained near Fredericksburg, to 
cross later at that city and carry the Heights beyond, 
now weakly defended by a division of Lee's army. 
Upon carrying the Heights he was directed to march on 
the Plank Road to Chancellorsville and take Lee's right 
in reverse. Hooker's original plan of campaign was 
admirably conceived, but subsequently reversed and the 
changed plan disastrously executed, as the sequel shows. 

At three o'clock, A. M,, on the 30th of April, our 
company squad was relieved from the picket line oppo- 
site Fredericksburg and ordered to return to the regi- 
ment. On our arrival at camp, our winter quarters 
were already demolished and our entire corps ready for 
an advance. About noon, we reached the United States 
Ford about six miles northwest of Fredericksburg. Here 
an order of General Hooker's was read to the troops to 
the effect that General Lee was outgeneraled and his 
army compelled to either ingloriously fly or give him 
battle on his own ground, where certain destruction 
awaited it. Of course, this welcome intelligence 
and hopeful forecast were implicitly believed and 
cheered to the echo. We crossed the Rappahannock on 
a pontoon bridge, and about five miles beyond struck 
the Confederate rear guard behind earth-works at the 
the White House on the road to Chancellorsville. 
These were summarily carried and the division biv- 
ouacked on the spot. 

Next day. May ist, the division passed Chancellors- 
ville, a "village" consisting of a large brick mansion in 
a clearing of perhaps fifty acres, and then marched to a 
ridge about two miles beyond. Here the country was 



CHANCELLORSVILLE. 91 

largely open and admirably suited for the development 
of our superior infantry and artillery. It was in an open 
country that Hooker originally contemplated to fight 
the impending battle, in which the Army of the Poto- 
mac could see the enemy they were called to fight — a 
battle to be fought on equal terms. Yet he now de- 
termined to abandon this advanced position and re- 
verse his purpose of aggression to fight in the open 
— an act little short of suicide. Instead, he directed 
the army to return to Chancellorsville and vicinity 
where the country was densely wooded with tangled 
undergrowth, with neither perspective nor eminence, 
in which it was impossible to manoeuvre an army to 
advantage, and in the absence of unremitting vigilance 
liable to surprises. Gen. Couch and other officers vainly 
endeavored to have this fatal order rescinded but Hooker 
was obstinate and seemed to have lost both his head and 
his courage. 

The day following, instead of correcting the error 
by selecting a suitable battle ground, the army remain- 
ed stationary and inert awaiting developments of the 
enemy. They came from an unexpected quarter about 
6 P. M., when General Stonewall Jackson's Corps of 
26,000 men, after a night and all-day march from below 
Fredericksburg, impetuously assaulted General How- 
ard's nth Corps forming Hooker's right. Howard not 
having his front properly picketed was completely sur- 
prised and his command put to a disgraceful flight. 

When the disaster began our division was a short dis- 
tance east of Chancellorsville and about half a mile in 
the rear of Howard. Shortly after, we encountered 
stampeded wagons, ambulances, packmules, cannon and 
caissons, with men and horses running for their lives. 

Our brigade commanded by General Hays and Gen- 



92 MY LITTLB WAR EXPERIENCE. 

eral Sickles' Third Division under General Berry were 
immediately ordered to meet the enemy, stay the im- 
petuous advance and arrest the rout. It was already 
dusk when we moved to the front. The Confederate 
shells came in showers, the fuses making streaks of fire 
like blazing meteors or huge rockets and burst over our 
heads with a deafening roar. We soon met the victori- 
ous Confederates and the onslaught was at once check- 
ed. Our company, the left of the regiment, was located 
on the famous Plank Road. The sky was overcast 
and in the dense forest night was of Cimmerian dark- 
ness, and in consequence, the flashing fire more vivid. 
It was the most frightful and terrible night I ever 
experienced and the horror of the scene defies even 
an approximate description. General Sherman's de- 
claration that "War is Hell" was here most grimly 
exemplified. The musketry rattle and artillery de- 
tonations began along the line for perhaps half an 
hour and momentarily ceased. The opposing lines in 
many places in the total darkness and thickets of the 
woods ran against each other at haphazard, disorder 
reigned supreme among the intermingled contestants 
and the din was appalling. In the fitful intervals of 
fire arose the cries and groans of the wounded and the 
shouting and swearing of the more profane. The yells 
and cheers on both sides were such as one can alone 
hear in the furor of battle. After a temporary pause, 
pandemonium again became rampant, the battle renew- 
ed — " at first like pattering drops upon a roof ; then 
a roll, crash, roar and rush" — with deep and heavy ex- 
plosions like the crashing of thunderbolts. Our artil- 
lery battatlions were massed on the Chancellorsville 
plateau, Fairfax, an extended elevation about one hund- 
red and fifty yards to our rear, where guns double shot- 




THE DREAM OF THE SOLD^ER. 




SEVERING COMMUNICATIONS (p89i 



CHANCEI.LORSVILLB. 93 

ted with grape and canister, in continuous roar, thund- 
ered volleys over our heads, causing the ground to con- 
vulsively quake and tremble. Finally about 2 A. M., 
irom sheer exhaustion, the combat languished and finally 
died away — the forest strewn with dead and wounded. 



Chancellorsville. 

Stonewall Jackson's Mortal Wound and Death. 
Thrown from his Litter. Graphic and Thrill- 
ing Descriptions of the Horrible Night-Battle 
AND Jackson's Tragic Death, by the Count of 
Paris, and Jackson's Widow in his Memoirs. His 
Rank as a Chieftain. A Religious Fanatic. 
Demands the Killing of all Prisoners of War. 
His Death, and not the Battle of Gettysburg, 
the Turning Point of the War. 

URING a lull in the storm of battle, Stonewall 
Jackson, with a portion of his staff, in recon- 
noitring-, rode up the Plank Road, to the inter- 
mingled lines of troops, and perceiving his mistake, gal- 
loped back when his infantry, mistaking him and the 
staff for a squadron of our cavalry, fired a volley, killing 
a portion of the staff and mortally wounding Jackson 
himself. The terrific enfilading fire from our double- 
shotted guns created such chaos, havoc and disorder 
where Jackson lay wounded that his removal had several 
times to be abandoned. The consequent shock and 
hemorrhages so enfeebled him that when eight days 
later pleuro-pneumonia supervened he succumbed to 



CHANCE;i,ivORSVii.r,E. 95 

the insidious disease, and yielded his soul to the All- 
Beneficent Creator who gave it. 

A very interesting and thrilling description of that 
horrible night-battle and the mortal wounding of Stone- 
wall Jackson is given by the Count of Paris in his ad. 
mirable history of the Civil War. 

The stirring and interesting narrative begins at the 
conclusion of the surprise, rout and flight of Howard's 
Corps, by Jackson's Corps. After the first rush in the 
dense forest and thickets and checked by the raking 
fire from our new line of infantry and artillery, the 
Confederate ranks were intermingled and in disorder. 
After his lines were restored, Jackson, during a lull in 
the conflict, paused to reconnoitre before striking the 
final and decisive blow: 

" Being desirous of reconnoitring in person this position, which gives 
him the key to the whole system of Hooker's interior defences, Jackson 
presses forward, followed only by a few mounted men, whilst Hill, without 
waiting for the remainder of his division, takes Lane's brigade, which, 
having escorted the artillery along the road, is the first at hand, and posts 
it in front of Rode's division. This and Colston's division being in the 
greatest confusion, it has been found impossible to detach a line of skirm- 
ishers from it in order to clear the wood in front of them. Hill has or- 
dered Lane to employ one regiment in forming this line, but Jackson 
passes on before the order has been executed, and ignorant of this fact, 
he advances without mistrust in the direction of the enemy. Hill, seeing 
him before him, follows him close with his staff." 

" It is ten o'clock in the evening. The night is dark; a profound si- 
lence has succeeded the din of battle. The exhausted conquerors are 
waiting for the third line to take their place, and confine themselves to 
keeping up a brisk fire along their line of skirmishers, which has finally 
taken position on the outskirts of the woods. On the side of the Federals, 
Sickles, always ready for an attack has asked Hooker for permission to 
take the offensive with his three divisions as soon as he shall have been 
able to organize his line of battle. In the meanwhile, Berry's and Bir- 



9(> MY UITTI.K WAR KXPRRIRNCR. 

ney's battalions, the latter south, the former north of the position de- 
fended by Pleasanton, cause their skirmishers to advance, who drive back 
those of the enemy and cautiously penetrate into the forest. Birney's 
skirmishers soon perceive the group of mounted men on the road formed 
by Jackson's staff, and open tire upon them." 

"The Confederate general, perceiving his error, rushes hurriedly into 
the wood, northward, in order to avoid the bullets and to join, across the 
thicket, his Hue formed on that side by the Eighteenth North Carolina, 
which is stationed about one hundred yards in the rear; Hill joins him. 
The Southern soldiers, under the two-fold effects of fatigue and fighting, 
had lost their coolness and self-possession which characterizes well-tried 
troops; at the least alarm during that bloody night shots were fired at 
random, and more than once the Confederate skirmishers meeting una- 
wares, fired upon each other. Lane's brigade had been warned to be on 
its guard against the Federal cavalry. The soldiers of the Eighteenth, 
seeing Jackson and his followers coming at full gallop toward them, nat- 
urally believe they are about to be attacked. The first rank kneels to the 
ground, and when the staff is only within twenty paces of their line they 
receive it with a terrific discharge of musketry. This volley caused by 
the merest accident, and which another accident, equally trifling might 
have prevented, proved more fatal to the Confederate cause than a lost 
battle. Jackson is seriously wounded by three balls. Around him lie 
men and horses. The animals that are not mortally wounded carry off 
their riders, exposing them either to be dashed against a tree or to fall into 
the enemy's lines. 

" Jackson has received one ball in the right and two in the left arm; 
he has been no doubt struck at the moment when he was parting the 
branches of the trees before him; nevertheless, he succeeds in stopping 
his horse. Being turned towards his soldiers, whose officers have caused 
their fire to cease, he looks at them with astonishment, unable as yet to 
believe in so fatal a mistake, and asking himself whether he has not fallen 
into an ambush of the enemy. He faints away, and falls into the arms 
of his aid-de-camp, Captain Wilbourne, the only one who has not been 
wounded among those around him. The left arm is shattered close to the 
shoulder; the artery is severed and the blood flows in streams; Wilbourne 
has nothing but a pen-knife with which to dress the wound, through which 
life is fast ebbing away. Fortunately, Hill, who has remained a little in 



CHANCELLOKSVILLE. 97 

the rear, arrives at this critical moment, and his skillful appliances suc- 
ceed in stopping the hemorrhage." 

" The Federals, who have no suspicion o£ what is passing within a 
few rods of them, advance very slowiy, groping their way cautiously, but 
their skirmishers are already approaching the spot where Jackson has 
fallen; two of them are captured by Hill by the side of his chief, while a 
Unionist general, in advance of his men, appears for a moment near the 
group which surrounds him, to disappear immediately after in the dark. 
It is important to hide from the enemy, at all risks, the precious prey 
which lies so close to them, and while Hill is returning to his post to pre- 
pare for the attack with which he is menaced, Jackson, making a des- 
perate effort, proceeds on foot in the direction of the Confederate lines, 
where he finds a litter upon which he is placed." 

"While this incident, so serious for the future of the war, is passing in 
the dark recesses of the forest unknown to almost all the combatants— to 
those who followed Jackson with enthusiasm, as well as to those who had 
learned to dread him— the Federals are preparing to check the victorious 
march of the enemy by assuming a vigorous offensive attitude themselves. 
On the left Sickles has massed the whole of Birney's division on the 
borders of the wood along the road which connects with the turnpike from 
Hazel Grove and it is the skirmishers of his first brigade, under Ward, 
who have encountered Jackson ; Whipple is placed so as to support him; 
on the right, along the turnpike, it is again the Third Corps that is about 
to take the offensive." 

" As we have stated. Hooker, at the sound of battle, had started with 
Hays' Brigade of the Second Corps and with Berry's whole division. 
This was the same division he had himself organized eighteen month* 
before on the borders of the Lower Potomac, and that he had led through 
many battles since the day when it was decimated at Williamsburg; it was 
at the head of this division that he had acquired all his military reputa- 
tion, and among these soldiers, many of whom he could call by name, 
that he had exhibited all the dash to which he was indebted for his 
reputation. He had thrown himself among the fugitives of the Eleventh 
Corps with drawn sword. Under his lead. Berry's troops had passed 
through the frightened crowd without being shaken by the demoralizing 
spectacle, and had come, with Hays' brigade, to range themselves north 



98 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

of Fairview, in the positions selected by an engineer officer, General 
Warren." 

" Slocum, on his part, although obliged to face south of Chancellors- 
ville, where Lee is menacing his line of battle, has brought on Williams' 
division with most of his guns— a reinforcement far more useful, under 
those circumstances, than infantry. He posts the artillery upon the 
Heights of Fairview, so as to oppose a large barrier against the enemy in 
case the latter resumes the oflEensive, and causes Williams to advance along 
the road in order to support Sickles. These troops arrive just in time, 
toward nine o'clock in the evening, to take position to the right of the 
road between Birney and Berry, so as to complete the line of battle of 
the Third Corps. At the same hour. Hooker, who has accompanied this 
last division, seeing that the offensive movement of the enemy has been 
checked, returns to his quarters, where his presence is required. But he 
has scarcely arrived when he receives the message from Sickles, and he 
renews the order he had already sought to convey to him through Berry, 
directing him to attack the enemy and to recapture as much of the ground 
as possible. At eleven o'clock that night, Sickles gives Birney the signal 
of attack. Ward's brigade is the first to penetrate into the thicket; his 
four regiments on being deployed form but a single line without intervals; 
the superior officers are all on foot behind the rear ranks; the words of 
command are spoken in a low tone." 

" Scarcely has this brigade disappeared in the woods than the other 
two, breaking into companies, follow in their turn. Sickles' order is to go 
forward, driving back whatever may be encountered, until the causeway 
is reached along which aid may be given to Berry. The first line pro- 
ceeds for some distance without encountering anybody, listening for the 
least noise and looking for the enemy behind each tree. But suddenly 
the few isolated shots, which, like funeral knells, had resounded in the 
distance, are followed by a furious discharge of musketry which bursts 
at once in every corner of the wood. Unionists and Southerners, who 
are looking for each other in the dark, are suddenly brought face to face. 
One soon hears the cheers of the battalions that are charging upon one 
another; in one place the assailants are victorious; at another point they 
are repulsed. Although Birney's troops, who have attacked Rodes, are 
still separated from the road by a ravine and a dense thicket, the Federal 



CHANCELLORSVILLE. 99 

Artillery, at the sound of musketry, advances along that road and pene- 
trates into the woods, supported on the right by a portion of Berry's in- 
fantry. But the remainder of this division, finding the left of the Con- 
federate line strongly posted on the wooded slopes which rise northwest o£ 
Fairview, does not venture to go after it." 

" In the meanwhile, the Federalist artillerists, having boldly planted 
their pieces within less than one hundred yards of the Confederate bat- 
talions, open a terrific fire upon them. The grape shot which sweeps the 
right line of the causeway carries death and confusion not only to Lane's 
brigade, but to the remainder of Hill's division, which has not yet been 
completely formed into line, the largest portion of which is massed in 
column upon that causeway. General Hill is wounded, and one of the 
men who is carrying Jackson is struck at the same time; the aides-de- 
camp of the latter place him in the ditch by the roadside, and lay them- 
selves alongside of him in order to avoid the shower of projectiles which 
has caused the Confederate column to disperse in an instant. The sold- 
iers have scattered right and left into the wood, and the road, which but 
a while ago was so full of life, would have been deserted if the Federals 
had not been seen approaching within a short distance. 

" In order to get away from them, Jackson makes another effort to 
walk across the woods, but he is exhausted by the loss of blood, and has 
to be laid once more upon a litter; and again the bearers, stumbling in 
the dark, fall to the ground with him. The unfortunate wounded 
general, rolling over upon his shattered arm received then, it is said, 
some internal injuries which proved to be the ultimate cause of his death. 
His sufferings did not prevent him from giving his attention to the battle 
which was raging around him, and on General Pender coming to inform 
him that his soldiers, all in confusion, can no longer maintain themselves 
in their position, he replies with his wonted firmness of voice, "They 
must remain in it." Notwithstanding all the precautions taken to con- 
ceal from the troops the loss of their chief, Jackson has been recognized, 
and before he has reached the ambulance near Wilderness Tavern, where 
he finds at last some rest, the news of his wounds has already spread 
from mouth to mouth." 

In the " Memoirs of Stonewall Jackson " by his 
widow, is presented a graphic and pathetic narrative ot 



LofC. 



100 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

the terrible nocturnal conflict at Chancellorsville, par- 
ticularly the Confederate side of it, and the details of 
Jacksons's fateful tragedy which proved to be an irre- 
parable loss to the Southern Confederacy. This descrip- 
tion is given in extenso, in addition to that of the 
Count of Paris, because it reveals dramatically the dire 
Confederate dilemma, and is intensely interesting. Both 
narratives are specially momentous and important, when 
we consider that the death of Jackson, and not the battle 
of Gettysburg, was the real turning point of the war ; 
for if Jackson, instead of Ewell, had commanded Lee's 
left wing at Gettysburg, Cemetery Hill, the key of the 
position, would have been taken on the evening of July 
ist, and a Union victory turned into a Union defeat. 
The Confederate victory at Chancellorsville was entirely 
due to Jackson's famous flank movement and attack. 
It was Lee's last victory. 

The subjoined description begins just before Jack- 
son's initial attack in which he crushed Hooker's right 
under Howard : 

" Stuart was covering this flank movement vsritli his vigilant cavalry, 
and from his outposts Jackson was able to gain a glimpse of the enemy's 
position, which satisfied him that he had obtained the desired vantage- 
ground from which to attack. 

" The country around Chancellorsville is densely wooded with scrub 
oak and pine, which, with tangled undergrowth, form almost impenetra- 
ble depths from which it is appropriately called " The Wilderness." But 
in the open fields near the old Wilderness Tavern, General Jackson found 
space in which to draw up his troops. He formed them in three parallel 
lines, and selected two picked batteries to move down the turnpike, which 
marked the centre of his lines— the thick forests into which he was about 
to plunge affording no possible position for the rest of his artillery. By 
six o'clock all was in readiness for the advance, and at the word of com- 
mand the three lines charged forward, rushing with all the speed it was 
possible to make through the forests and dense brushwood, which almost 




From Leslie. 



GEN. HOOKER'S HEADQUARTERS, CHANCELLORSVILLE. p 90^ 















From Harper's. 

STAMPEDE OF THE ELEVENTH CORPS CHANCELLORSVILLE. pQI* 



CHANCELLORSVILLE. 101 

tore the clothing of the soldiers from their bodies, and compelled them to 
creep through many places; but still they pressed on, as best they could. 
The following description of what followed is taken from "The Battle- 
Fields of Virginia : 

'The forest was full of game, which, startled from their hiding-places 
by the unusual presence of man, ran in numbers to and over the Federal 
lines. Deer leaped over the works at Talley's, and dashed into the wood 
behind. The Federal troops had in most cases their arms stacked, and 
were eating supper. All danger was thought to be over for the night. 
The startled game gave the first intimation of Jackson's approach. But 
so little was it suspected or believed that the suggestion was treated as a 
jest. Presently the bugles were heard through which orders were passed 
along the Confederate lines. This excited still more remark. Ere it had 
been long discussed, however, there came the sound of a few straggling 
shots from the skirmishers, then a mighty cheer, and in a moment more 
Jackson was upon them. A terrible volley from his line of battle poured 
among the Union troops ere they could recover from their surprise. 
Those in line returned a scattered fire; others seized their arms and 
attempted to form; officers tried to steady their men and lead them to 
meet the attack. All was in vain .... Like a tornado the Con- 
federate lines passed over the ground, breaking, crushing, crumbling 
Howard's corps. Artillery, wagons, ambulances, are driven in frantic 
panic to the rear, and double the confusion. The rout is utter and hope- 
less. The mass of pursuers and pursued roll on until the position of 
Melzi Chancellor's is reached. Here a strong line of works had been 
constructed across the road, which, having a shallow ditch, could be made 

to face in either direction Some of Schurz's men rally 

on Buschbeck, and for a short time the Confederate advance is arrested. 
But Jackson cannot long be held back. Colston's division has eagerly 
pressed on, and is already commingled with Rodes. Together they charge 
with a yell; and in a few moments the works are taken. Pell-mell now 
rush the Eleventh Corps, the last semblance of organization gone, through 
the forest towards Chancellorsville. Onward sweep the Confederates in 
hot pursuit. The arms, knapsacks, and accoutrements of the fugitives 
fill the woods. Artillery carriages are to be seen overturned in the narrow 
roads, or hopelessly jammed in the impenetrable jungle. The wounded 
and dying, with their groans, fill the forest on every side. The day is 



102 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

rapidly drawing to a close; night comes to add confusion to the scene. 
It had been impossible in the broad daylight, owing to the intricacy of the 
forest, to prevent a commingling of regiments and brigades along the Con- 
federate lines. The confusion thus produced is greatly increased by the 
darkness. In a brushwood so dense that it is impossible, under favorable 
circumstances, to see thirty yards in any direction, companies, regiments, 
brigades, become inextricably intermixed. Colston's division, forming 
the second line, has already become merged with Rodes'. Both move on 
in one confused mass. The right of the Confederate line soon reaches an 
abatis which has been felled to protect the approach to some woods on the 
opposite heights. The troops, already disordered, became still more so 
among the felled timber. Behind this abatis some troops and artillery have 
been gathered to make a stand. Rodes finds it impossible to push farther 
until the lines can be reformed. This right is first halted, and then the 
whole Confederate line. Rodes sends word to Jackson, requesting that 
the third line (A. P. Hill's division) be set forward to take the advance 
until the first and second can be reformed. 

" While this was being done, there was a lull in the storm of battle Jack- 
son had paused for a time in his pursuit; Hooker was attempting to stop 
and reform his flying legions." 

" During this splendid charge, Jackson was the impersonation of mili- 
tary enthusiasm, dashing on at the head of his men, with the words of com- 
mand, 'Forward!' 'Press on!' continually ringing from his lips. He 
leaned forward upon his horse, and waved his hand, as though by its 
single strength he were trying to impel his men onward. As cheer after 
cheer rose from the Confederate line, announcing new successes, his flash- 
ing eyes and glowing cheeks showed how deeply he was moved, and he was 
observed frequently to look upwards and lift his right hand to heaven in 
prayer and thanksgiving. 

Thus far his most sanguine hopes had been realized. His flank move- 
ment was a brilliant success— the enemy had been surprised, and their 
right flank had been driven back in confusion. But he knew that much 
had yet to be done before the victory could be complete. The first blow 
must be followed by others. He therefore deeply regretted the disorder 
in which his own lines had fallen. After marching twenty miles, and 
fighting over three miles on difficult ground, it was no wonder the men, 
feeling assured of victory, halted from weariness and broken ranks, as 



CHANCELLORSVILLE. 103 

though the day's work was done. But though the enemy had been driven 
from an important defence, which might be reoccupied at any moment if 
the Confederates failed to seize it, Jackson saw that eyerything depended 
on immediately reforming his lines. He dispatched his staff in every di- 
rection to order the officers to get the men back into ranks and press for- 
ward. Dashing along the lines himself, almost unattended, he kept say- 
ing: 'Men, get into line! Get into line! Whose regimect is this? 
Colonel, get your men instantly into line.' Turning to an officer who 
came up to report, he said: 'Find General Rodes, and tell him to occupy 
that barricade at once with his troops.' He then added: 'I need your 
help for a time, this disorder must be corrected. As you go along the 
right, tell the froops, from me, to get into line, and preserve their order.' 
After this strenuous effort to restore order to his lines, he rode forward 
to make a reconnoisance himself, and found that Hooker was advancing a 
powerful body of fresh troops in his direction. Being pressed in front by 
General Lee, the Federal commander turned upon the foe in the rear, and 
endeavored to recapture the all-important barricade. General Jackson, ac- 
companied by a part of his staff, and several couriers, advanced on the 
turnpike in the direction of the enemy about one hundred yards, when he 
was fired upon by a volley of musketry from his right front. The bullets 
whistled among the party, and struck several horses. This fire was evi- 
dently from the enemy, and one of his men caught his bridle-rein and said 
to him: 'General Jackson, *you should not expose yourself so much.' 'There 
is no danger,' he replied, 'the enemy is routed. Go back and tell Gen. 
eral Hill to press on.' But in order to screen himself from the flying bul- 
lets, he rode from the road to the left and rear. The small trees and 
brushwood being very dense, it was difficult to effect a passage on horse- 
back. While riding as rapidly as possible to the rear, he came in front of 
his own line of battle, who, having no idea that he, or any one but the 
enemy, was in their front, and mistaking the party for a body of Federal 
cavalry, opened a sharp fire upon them. From this volley General Jackson 
received his mortal wounds. His right hand was pierced by a bullet, his 
left arm shattered by two balls, one above and one below the elbow, break, 
ing the bones and severing the main artery. His horse, 'Little Sorrel,' 
terrified by the nearness and suddenness of the fire, dashed off in the direc- 
tion of the enemy, and it was with great difficulty that he could control 
him — his bridle hand being helpless, and the tangled brushwood, through 



104 MY LITTLB WAR EXPERIENCE. 

which he was "borne, almost dragging him from his seat. But he seized 
the reins in his right hand, and arresting the flight of his horse, brought 
him back into his own lines, where, almost fainting, he was assisted to the 
ground by Captain Wilbourne, his signal officer. By this fire several of his 
escort were killed and wounded, among the former was the gallant Captain 
Bosswell, and every horse which was not shot down wheeled back in terror, 
bearing his rider towards the advancing enemy. The firing was arrested 
by Lieutenant Morrison, who, after his horse was killed under him, ran to 
the front of the firing line, and with much difficulty in making himself 
heard, told them they were firing into their own men. As soon as this 
was effected, he returned to find his general lying prostrate upon the 
ground, with Captain Wilbourne and Mr. Winn by his side. He was 
wearing at the time an india-rubber overcoat over his uniform, as a pro- 
tection from the dampness of the night. This Wilbourne was ripping up 
with a pen-knife to get at the wounded arm and stanch the bleeding. Gen- 
eral A. P. Hill, who was near by, was speedily informed of the disaster 
and came at once. Dismounting from his horse, he bent down and asked, 
'General, are you much hurt?' He replied, 'Yes, general, I think I am; 
and all my wounds are from my own men. I believe my arm is broken; 
it gives me severe pain.' 'Are you hurt anywhere else, general?' he was 
asked. 'Yes, in my right hand,' But when asked afterwards, if it should 
be bound up, he said: 'No, never mind; it is a trifle.' And yet two of 
the bones were broken, and the palm almost pierced through. Amidst all 
his sufferings he uttered no complaint, and answered all questions in a 
perfectly calm and self-possessed tone. He asked for Dr. McGuire, but 
when told that he was engaged in his duties far in the rear, he said to 
Captain Wilbourne: 'Then I wish you to get me a skillful surgeon.' Gen- 
eral Hill stated that Dr. Barr was near at hand, and he was immediately 
summoned. Upon his arrival. General Jackson whispered to General Hill: 
'Is he a skillful surgeon?' The answer was that he stood high in his 
brigade, and all that would be required of him would be to take precau- 
cautionary measures until Dr. McGuire could arrive. To this General 
Jackson answered, 'Very good.' Hi-; field-glass and haversack were re- 
moved from his person, and the latter was found to contain only a few 
official papers and two religious tracts. While the sufferer was still lying 
prostrate, within a circle of his ministering attendants around him, two 
Federal soldiers, with muskets cocked, walked out of the brushwood, and 



CHANCELLORSVILLE. 105 

approached within a few feet of the group. General Hill, in a perfectly 
quiet tone and manner, turned and said: 'Take charge of those men.' 
In an instant two orderlies sprang forward and seized their guns, which 
the astonished soldiers yielded without any resistance. Lieutenant Mor- 
rison, hearing voices in the direction of the enemy, stepped to the edge of 
the wood to reconnoitre, and in the moonlight saw a section of artillery 
being unlimbered not over a hundred yards distant. Returning with all 
haste, he reported the fact, when General Hill gave orders that General 
Jackson should immediately be carried to the rear, and that no one should 
tell the troops that he was wounded. Remounting his horse, he returned 
to his own command, and was soon afterwards disabled by a wound. 
Lieutenants Smith and Morrison, Captain Leigh, of General Hill's staff, 
with a courier, now took General Jaokson up in their arms, but after bear- 
ing him a short distance, he told them he was suffering so much pain from 
being carried that he would try to walk, and after they assisted him to his 
feet, he did walk as far as the turnpike. 

Just as they reached the road, the battery which had been seen to un- 
limber swept over them a volley of canister-shot, the balls hissing through 
the air, and crashing through the trees, but fortunately passing over their 
heads. The whole party then lay down on the side of the road, shielding 
the general, as far as possible, by placing him on the lowest ground. 
While lying here, the earth around them was torn up by shot, covering 
them with dust, and a hurricane of lead and canister dashed against the 
flinty gravel and stones of the road, making it literally glow with flashes 
and streaks of fire. So furious and deadly was the tempest, that the es- 
cape of any of the party seemed miraculous. Once General Jackson at- 
tempted to rise, but was restrained by his attendants, who sought to pro- 
tect him with their own bodies. Lieutenant Smith threw his arm over 
him, holding him down and saying; 'General, you must be still; it will 
cost you your life if you rise.' With such fidelity did these young soldiers 
stand over the prostrate form of their beloved chief, trying to save his 
life, though it should be at the sacrifice of their own. 

The enemy soon changed from canister to shell and elevated their 
range, when the young men renewed their efforts to get General Jackson 
to the rear, supporting him with their strong arms, as he slowly and pain- 
fully dragged himself along. As the Confederate troops were hurrying 
to the front, they met the party, and the question came from the lips of 



,10.6 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

almost every passer-by, 'Who have they there?' The general, not wish- 
ing his troops to recognize him, gave orders to leave the road and diverge 
into the woods. He said to his attendants: 'Don't tell them who it is, 
but simply say it is a Confederate officer.' Despite these precautions, he 
did not escape recognition by some of his men, who exclaimed with grief 
and dismay: 'Great God! it is General Jackson!' General Pender, of 
North Carolina, was one of those who recognized him, and after approach- 
ing and expressing his deep regret at his wounding, said to him: 'The 
troops have suffered severely from the enemy's artillery, and are some- 
what disorganized,- I fear we cannot maintain our position.' Faint and 
exhausted as he was, a gleam of the old battle fire flashed from his eyes, 
and instantly he replied: 'You must hold your ground, General Pender; 
you must hold your ground, sir.' This was the last order given by the 
hero of so many battle-fields. 

Growing more faint after this, he asked to be permitted to sit down and 
rest, but the dangers of the enemy's fire and from capture were too immi- 
nent, and a litter having now been procured from an ambulance corps, he 
was placed upon it, and the bearers hurried forward, still keeping out of 
the road to avoid the fire of the enemy. As they struggled through the 
dense thickets, his face was scratched and his clothing torn; but this was 
nothing in comparison with the agony caused by a fall from the litter. One 
of the bearers was shot in the arm, and, letting go his hold, the general 
fell violently to the ground, upon his wounded side, causing such pain 
that for the first time he was heard to utter a groan. His attendants 
quickly raised him up, and finding the blood again flowing, and a look of 
deathly pallor upon his face, feared he might be expiring. Lieutenant 
Smith cried out, 'Oh, General are you seriously hurt.'' 'No, Mr. Smith, 
don't trouble yourself about me,' he replied, and presently added some- 
thing about winning the battle first, and attending to the wounded after- 
wards. He was again placed upon the litter, and carried a few hundred 
yards under a continuous fire, when the party was met by Dr. McGuire 
with an ambulance. Some whiskey and morphine was administered to 
him, and placing him in an ambulance, it started for the Corps Field In- 
firmary, at the Wilderness Tavern. On the morning of May Sth, he 
was placed in the ambulance and takon to the Chancellor House, at 
Guiney's Station. On the 7th, pleuro-pneumonia set in, and on the 10th 
he died." 











.«*, 




From Battles and Leaders of the Civil War. 

ARTILLERY MASSED ON CHANCELLORSVILLE PLATEAU, p 92} 




From Leslie. 

BATTLE ON THE PLANK ROAD, CHANCELLORSVILLE. p 92) 



CHANCELI.ORSVIU.E. 107 

That Stonewall Jackson was one of the great Chief- 
tains of the century is undisputed. He was fertile in 
resource, indomitably energetic, unconquerably tena- 
cious, fearless in battle, quick in apprehension and swift 
in execution. The undetected transfer in 1862 of his 
command, himself disguised to avert all possible dis- 
covery of the adroit movement, from the Virginia Val- 
ley to Richmond was a masterpiece of strategy. With- 
out his command present, which vigorously attacked in 
rear and forced back the right wing of the Union forces 
at Mechanicsville, there would have been no Confederate 
victories in the Peninsular Campaign. His gaining 
Pope's rear at Manassas, immediately preceding the 
battle of Second Bull Run, was the causa causans of that 
signal Confederate victory. He possessed a signal ad- 
vantage in a thorough knowledge ot the topography of 
the Virginia country, the material aid given him by a 
friendly population, and an efficient cavalry to veil his 
movements. While in command of independent forces 
in the Virginia Valley he was also exceptionally fortu- 
nate in having for his adversaries incapable Union 
commanders. His famous flank attack at Chancellors- 
ville was capable of success alone on the assumption of 
rank inefficiency of some Union Commanders ; and the 
monumental incapacity displayed by both Hooker and 
Howard justified his expectations. Pitted against 
Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, Thomas or Hancock, many 
of his triumphs would have been defeats. 

Stonewall Jackson was a compound of the Scotch- 
Irish Presbyterian and the erstwhile savage. He was 
the only officer of high rank, and for that matter, of 
any rank or station on either side of the war to propose 
and urge at the threshold of the war, the barbaric and 
unspeakable horror of butchering prisoners of war. " I 



108 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

always thought," declared Jackson, "that we ought to 
meet the Federal invaders on the outer verge of just 
right and defence, and at once raise the black flag, viz: 
' No quarters to the violators of our homes and fire- 
sides.' It would in the end have proved true humanity 
and mercy. The Bible is full of such wars, and it is 
the only policy that would bring the North to its 
senses."* 

He possessed a religious fanaticism akin to that of 
the old Puritan, John Brown, without the latter's 
philanthropy, humanity and lofty purpose. The one 
died to keep the slave in bondage, while the other 
died to make him free. 



* Note — Life of Jackson by his widow, page 310. 



Chancellorsville. 

The Battle Renewed on Sunday. Gen. Berry 
Killed in our Company. The Fatal Blunder 
OF HIS Successor. The Terrible Retreat Step 
BY Step to an Inner Line. Hand to Hand 
Conflict. Horses Shot between the Lines. 
President Lincoln's Unique Letter to Gen. 
Hooker. The Latter's Incompetency as an 
Army Commander. Corps Commanders in Coun- 
cil OF War, Urge a Renewal of the Attack 
which would have Retrieved the Disaster. 
The Retreat to our Abandoned Winter 
Quarters. 

AT daybreak next morning (Sunday, May 3rd,) the 
battle was renewed along the whole line. Our 
company was still located at the Plank Road. In our 
immediate front and right was a dense forest almost im- 
penetrable on account of the dense undergrowth. On 
our left front was an open clearing of about twelve acres, 
and extending along the Plank Road towards the Con- 
federate line about three hundred yards. Brigade after 
brigade plunged into this opening only to be repulsed 
in detail by the Confederates who were advantageously 
lodged in Jtb.^ cppsewood at the edge of the forest. 



110 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

Meanwhile, Gen. Berry's division of the Third Corps 
moved up from our right and took the front line, placing 
us in the second. As we could not fire over the heads 
of these intervening troops, and our regiment thus tem- 
porarily inactive, Jacob G. Reever and I became so im- 
patient as well as excited at the gallant fight on the left 
of our comrades in the clearing, that we started to leave 
our company to join in the struggle, but were called 
back by our Captain, much to our regret. 

The battle along the entire line raged with the great- 
est fury, the Confederates slowly gaining a little ground 
on our right. In our immediate front, a Napoleon 12- 
pounder had the evening before been rushed in an ad- 
vanced position on the Plank Road about fifty yards 
beyond our Company. It was this gun, double-shotted 
with grape and canister, that helped to rake the enemy 
in its immediate front the night before. While the bat- 
teries on the plateau and infantry were hotly engaged, 
the horses of the caisson became wedged in the trees 
between the firing lines. Realizing their critical posi- 
tion, they trembled in the agony of terror. A few of 
our company cut the harness and tried to extricate them, 
but were unsuccessful, and all were killed. 

Meanwhile, there was' a hand to hand contest for the 
possession of the cannon, in which the enemy was driven 
back. A gallant dash from the plateau was then made 
for it by cannoniers with the caisson of a battery in our 
rear, and the gun recovered. 

The mounts of General Berry and stafiF, as the battle 
progressed, became exposed between the lines and know- 
ing their peril, shook with fear, and successively all 
fell. After dismounting. Gen. Berry came to our comp- 
any, and while viewing the struggle with his field glass , 



CHANCELLORSVILLE. Ill 

was struck by a bullet and killed. Four members of 
our company carried him from the field. 

A dash was made by the enemy upon the 12th New 
Jersey, the right of our brigade, which gave way en. 
abling the Confederates to capture Gen. Hays command- 
ing the brigade. The regiment rallied and drove the 
enemy back, but the General was not rescued. 

Immediately after Gen. Berry fell. Gen. Revere, who 
succeeded in command,'without authority or justification 
ordered a retreat of both Gen. Berry's division and our 
brigade. Gen. Sickles, whose gallant troops on our left 
kept the Confederates in check, perceiving this, in vain 
tried to conect the fatal blunder, but the enemy broke 
into the gap made by the order of retreat, and as we had 
retired to the Chancellor House before the error was dis- 
covered, it was too late to re-establish our line of battle. 
Gen. Revere was afterwards court-martialed and mildly 
sentenced to a dishonorable dismissal from the army. 
The Confederates having taken Sickles' two other divi- 
sions in reverse, he was compelled to fall back. With 
his retreat came all the batteries massed on the plateau 
which had kept up a continuous roar that made the 
ground tremble with its power. The batteries retreated 
step by step firing grape and canister before limbering 
up. As our division, under orders, reluctantly fell back 
amid the exploding shells from the enemy's advancing 
artillery, we beheld Hancock's troops gallantly repel 
charge after charge of the Confederates on the left of 
the Chancellor House, then in flames, but as the Con- 
federates threatened his right rear, his division also re. 
tired to the new line then in formation in the Bullock 
clearing. Mrs. Chancellor and her family during the 
battle sought shelter in the basement of her house, and 
when aflame with exploding shells were rescued with 



112 MY LITTLE WAR KXPERIENCE. 

with the greatest difficulty from their perilous situation. 
The forest where the battle raged the fiercest was now 
on fire, and many of the severely wounded were burnt 
to death. One of the nerviest things I saw in our new 
position was a tall soldier, with his right arm shot off, 
walking from the field apparently unconcerned. Earth 
works were immediately thrown up on our new line 
which the Confederates did not attempt to attack. Dark- 
ness now came on and the dreadful carnage for the time 
being was ended. 

The First and Fifth Corps under Generals Reynolds 
and Meade and extending from Howard's right to the 
Rappahannock were not engaged at all. After the re- 
treat to the second line of battle on Sunday, both of 
these commanders urged Hooker to give them an order 
to attack with their redoubtable corps of 30,000 men the 
Confederate left taking it in reverse, but Hooker having 
lost his head refused to issue the order. If issued, they 
would have recovered the ground lost and annihilated 
Jackson's decimated corps, and a Confederate victory 
turned into an overwhelming defeat. It was Reynold's 
First Corps that on the first day's battle Gettysburg 
crushed two divisions of Gen. A. P. Hill's command to 
such an extent that they were of little service to Gen. 
Lee in the second and third days' struggle. 

The subjoined account of Gen. Hooker's discreditable 
part in the Sunday disaster is by Gen. Couch, and is in- 
teresting, if humiliating: 

"At about 5 a. m., May 3rd, (Sunday,) fighting was renewed at Chan- 
chellorsville, when the Third (Sickle's) Corps began to retire to the left or 
our proper right flank, and all of that flank soon became fiercely engaged, 
while the battle rang along the whole line. The enemy's guns on the 
heights to our left, as well at every point on the line where they could be 
established, were vigorously used, while a full division threw itself on 



CHANCBLI^ORSVILLE. 113 

Miles at Mott's Run. On the right flank onr guns were well handled, those 
of the Twelfth Corps being conspicuous, and the opposing lines of infantry 
operating in the thicket had almost hand-to-hand conflicts, capturing and 
recapturing prisoners. The enemy appeared to know what he was about, 
for pressing the Third Corps rigorously he forced it back, when he joined 
or rather touched the left of Lee's main body, making their line continuous 
from left to right. Another advantage gained by this success was the pos- 
session of an open field, from which guns covered the ground up to the 
Chancellor House." 
****** *»»^( 

" Not far from 8:30 a. m., the headquarters pennants of the Third and 
Twelfth Corps suddenly appeared from the right in the open field of Chan- 
cellorsville; then the Third began to fall back, it was reported, for want 
of ammunition, followed by that portion of the Twelfth fighting on the 
same flank, and the division of the Second Corps on its right." 
*** * * ****ij 

"The open field seized by Jackson's old corps after the Third Corps 
drew off was shortly dotted with guns that made splendid practice through 
an opening in the woods upon the Chancellor House, and everything else, 
for that matter, in that neighborhood. Hooker was still at his place on the 
porch, with nothing between him and Lee's Army but Geary's division of 
the Twelfth and Hancock's division and a battery of the Second Corps. 
But Geary's right was now turned, and that flank was being steadily press- 
ed back along his entrenched line to the junction of the Plank Road and 
the Turnpike, when a cannon shot struck the pillar against which Hooker 
was leaning and knocked him down." 

"The enemy having 30 pieces in position on our right, now advanced 
some of his guns to within 500 or 600 yards of the Chancellor House, 
where there were only four of Pettit's Second Corps guns to oppose them, 
making a target of that building and taking the right of Hancock's divi- 
sion in reverse, a portion of which had been withdrawn from its intrench- 
ments and thrown back to the left to meet the enemy should he succeed 
in forcing Mott's Run. This flank was stoutly held by Colonel Miles, 
(now General, ) who, by the bye, had been carried off the field, shot through 
the body." 
** * * *****, 

" It was now too late to save the day. Fifty pieces of artillery, or even 



114 MY LITTI^E WAR EXPERIRNCE. 

forty, brought up and run in front and to the right of the Chancellor 
House, would have driven the enemy out of the thicket, then forcing back 
Geary's right, and would have neutralized the thirty guns to the right 
which were pounding us so hard. 

But it is a waste of words to write what might have been done. Hooker 
had made up his mind to abandon the field, otherwise he would not have 
allowed the Third and part of the Twelfth Corps to leave their ground for 
want of ammunition. A few minutes after my interview with Geary, a 
staff officer from Hooker rode up and requested my presence with that 
general. Turning to General Hancock nearby, I told him to take care of 
things and rode to the rear. The Chancellor House was then burning, 
having been fired in several places by the enemy's shells." 

" At the farther side of an open field half a mile in the rear of Chancel- 
lorsviile, I came upon a few tents (three or four) pitched, around which, 
mostly dismounted, were a number of staff officers. General Meade was 
also present, and perhaps other generals. General Hooker was lying 
down I think in a soldier's tent by himself. Raising himself a little as I 
entered, he said, 'Couch, I turn the command of the army over to you. 
You will withdraw it and place it in position designated on this map,' as he 
pointed to a line traced on a field sketch. This was perhaps three-quarters 
of an hour after his hurt. He seemed rather dull, but possessed his mental 
faculties. I do not think that one of those officers outside of the tent knew 
what orders I was to receive, for on stepping out, which I did immediately, 
on getting my instructions, I met Meade close by, looking inquiringly as 
if he expected that finally he would receive the order for which he had 
waited all that long morning, 'togo in.' Colonel N. H. Davis broke out: 
'We shall have some fighting now.' These incidents are mentioned rQ 
show the temper of that knot of officers." 

The day following our retreat to the second line, Gen. 
Lee marched his almo.st entire right towards Fredericks- 
burg, and repulsed Gen. Sedgwick's Corps, which, dur- 
ing the fighting at Chaucellorsville, was on its way to 
connect with Hooker, after having captured Fredericks- 
burg Heights. Here was Hooker's opportunity to strike 
Lee's weakened line, in relief of Sedgwick, but he was 




''^. 



'^.^^^ 






^ ^'%^%f: 




..-■;t2:- 




From Leslie ON THE MARCH TO CHANCELLORSVlLLE. p 90 







From Leslie RETREAT FROM CHANCELLORSVlLLE. 'p 115* 



CHANCELI^OESVIIXE. 115 

unequal to the occasion, and allowed himself to be 
beaten in detail. 

Says General Couch: 

" Some of the most anomalous occurrences of the war took place in this 
campaign. On the night of May 2nd the commanding general, with 80,000 
men in his wing of the army, directed Sedgwick, with 22,000, to march to 
his relief. While that officer was doing this on the 3rd, and when it would 
be expected that every eEort would be made by the right wing to do its 
part, only one-half of it was fonght (or rather half-fought, for its ammu- 
nition was not replenished,) and then the whole wing was withdrawn to a 
place where it could not be hurt, leaving Sedgwick to take care of him- 
self." 

Upon Lee's return, skirmishing and minor attacks, 
with occasional cannonading, were indulged in, entail- 
ing but few causualties. 

On the afternoon of May 5th, while a.sleep from fati- 
gue, a thunder storm came suddenly unaunouuced, and 
at a tremendous crash of liglitning every man of our 
brigade ha.stily grabbed his rifle, thinking tlie battle had 
re-opened. As night came on, the order to retreat was 
given, and the army began its dreary march to the Rap- 
pannock by the old road as well as new roads cut 
through the timber and thickets of the forest. The 
worst planned and executed .series of engagements of 
the war, Fredericksburg perhaps alone excepted, re- 
sulted in a disgraceful defeat. The troops engaged 
never fought more gallantly, the disaster being alone 
due to the indefensible errors and blunders of the com- 
mander of the army and one of his corps subordinates. 

From the very inception, when the army was with- 
drawn from the open country into an almost impassa- 
ble forest and the right flank not properly picketed and 
protected, the most costly blunders of General Hooker 
followed in rapid succession and lost us the battle. 



116 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

The whole affair was unrelated and disjointed. There 
was an utter absence of simultaneous movement or co- 
operation between the troops employed, to say nothing 
of the several large corps not engaged at all. 

Hooker, certain ot victory, sent the cavalry of the 
army, under Gen. Stoneman, to destroy the railroad be- 
tween Fredericksburg aud Richmond so as to cut off 
Lee's retreat. Cavalry are the eyes of the army. Stone- 
man's cavalry with the army, and employed to explore 
the way, the battle would never have been fought in 
in a dense forest, at a great disadvantage, nor would 
Jackson's masterly flank movement been undiscovered. 
In the event of victory, the cavalry could have been 
most potently employed to harass the fleeing enemy and 
capture demoralized detatchments. Lee used his ca- 
valry to veil Jackson's circuitous route on our right, and 
it was its absence prior to the struggle at Gettysburg, 
that precipitated and lost him that battle. 

A combined attack by the whole army after May 4th 
could still have redeemed the blunders, and perched 
victory on our banners. But, according to Gen. Couch, 
Hooker was completely demoralized, and determined to 
retreat: 

"At twelve o'clock on the night of the 4th-5th, General Hooker as- 
sembled his corps commanders in council. Meade, Sickles, Howard, 
Reynolds, and myself were present; General Slocum, on account of the 
long distance from his post, did not arrive until after the meeting was 
broken up. Hooker stated that his instructions compelled him to cover 
Washington, not to jeopardize the army, etc. It was seen by the most 
causual observer that he had made up his mind to retreat. We were left 
by ourselves to consult, upon which Sickles made an elaborate argument, 
sustaining the views of the commanding general. Meade was in favor of 
fighting, stating that he doubted if we could get off our guns. Howard 
was in favor of fighting, qualifying his views by the remark that our 
present situation was due to the bad conduct of his corps, or words to that 



CHA.NCEI,LORSVII.LE. 117 

effect. Reynolds, who was lying on the ground very much fatigued, was 
in favor of an advance. I had similar views to those of Meade as to get- 
ting off the guns but said "would favor an advance if I could designate 
the point of attack.' Upon collecting the suffrages, Meade, Rey- 
nolds and Howard voted squarely for an advance, Sickles and myself, 
squarely no; upon which Hooker informed the council that he should 
take upon himself the responsibility' of retiring the army to the other side 
of the river. As I stepped out of the tent Reynolds, just behind me, 
broke out, 'What was the use of calling us together at this time of night 
when he intended to retreat anyhow?' 

" On the morning of May 5th, corps commanders were ordered to cut 
roads, where it was necessary, leading from their positions to the United 
States Ford. During the afternoon there was a very heavy rainfall. In 
the meantime Hooker had in person crossed the liver, but, as he gave 
orders for the various corps to march at such and such times during the 
night, I am not aware that any of his corps generals knew of his depar- 
ture. Near midnight I got a note from Meade informing me that General 
Hooker was on the other side of the river, which had risen over the 
bridges, and that communication was cut off from him, I immediately 
rode over to Hooker's headquarters and found that I was in command of 
the army, if it had any commander. General Hunt, of the artillery, had 
brought the information as to the condition of the bridges, and from the 
reports there seemed to be danger of losing them entirely. After a short 
conference with Meade I told him that the recrossing would be suspended, 
and that 'we would stay where we were and fight it out,' returning to my 
tent with the intintion of the enjoying what I had not since the night of 
the 30th ultimo, a good sleep; but at 2 a. m., communication having been 
re-established, I received a sharp message from Hooker, to order the re- 
crossing of the army as he had directed, and everything was safely trans- 
ferred to the North bank of the Rappannock." 

" In looking for the causes of the loss of Chanceilorsville, the primary 
ones were that Hooker expected Lee to fall back without risking battle. 
Finding himself mistaken he assumed the defensive, and was out-gener- 
aled and became demoralized by the superior tactical boldness of the 
enemy." 

In the retreat from Chanceilorsville, I became so tired 



118 MY UTTLK WAR EXPERIENCE. 

and exhausted tramping through mud and thickets and 
stumbling over stumps that I was compelled twice to 
fall out of ranks and lie down and take brief rests. The 
thought, however, of becoming a prisoner and confined 
to horrible rebel prisons nerved me to renewed efforts 
until, finally, after daylight, with the whole of the Army 
of the Potomac recrossed to the North bank of the Rap- 
pahannock. After a short halt for rest, we plunged 
through the mire until we arrived at our late winter 
quarters near Falmouth. 

The casualties of the three battles in which we were 
engaged, were on the Union side, 42,350, and on the 
Confederate, 30,680; total, 73,030. 

That President Lincoln was somewhat distrustful of 
Gen. Hooker's ability to successfully command the 
Army of the Potomac is shown by the following inimi- 
table letter to Hooker after giving him the command, 
of February 26, 1863: 

" I have placed you at the head of the Army of the Potomac. Of 
course I have done this on vrh&t appears to me to be sufficient reasons, 
end yet I think it best for you to know that there are some things in re- 
gard to which I am not quite satisfied with you. I believe you to be a 
brave and skillful soldier, which, of course, I like. I also believe that 
you do not mix politics with your profession, in which you are right. Yon 
have confidence in yourself, which is valuable, if not an indispensable, 
quality. You are ambitious, which, within reasonable bounds, does good 
rather than harm; but I think that during General Burnside's command of 
the army you have taken counsel of your ambition and thwarted him as 
much as you could, in which you did a great wrong to the country and to a 
most meritorious brother officer. I have heard, in such a way as to be- 
lieve it, of your recently saying that both the army and the Government 
needed a Dictator. Of course it was not for this, but in spite of it, that I 
have given you the command. Only those generals that can gain successes 
can set up dictators. What I now ask of you is military success and I will 
risk the dictatorship. The Government will support you to the utmost of 



CHANCEIwLORSVILLE. 119 

its ability, which is neither more nor less than it has done and will do for 
all commanders. I much fear that the spirit which you have aided to 
infuse into the army, of criticising their commander and withholding con- 
fidence from him, will now turn upon you. I shall assist you as far as I 
can to put it down. Neither you nor Napoleon, if he were alive again, 
could get any good out of an army while such a spirit prevails in it. And 
now beware of rashness, but with energy and sleepless vigilance go for- 
ward and give us victories." 

The easily acquired victories of Fredericksburg and 
Chancellorsville so exalted the Confederates in their con- 
ception of superior prowess and invincibility, as to 
make them apprehensive that the Army of the Poto- 
mac would not dare stand up to a fair and square fight. 
This idea prevailed not only with the rank and file but 
with the very head of the Confederate Army. 

Gen. E. P. Alexander in command of Lee's Reserve 
Artillery, left Greenwood eighteen miles west of Gettys- 
burg at I a. m., of July 2nd, for the scene of action. He 
says: "There was a very natural anxiety to know how 
the enemy had fought the day before at Gettysburg. As 
we met the wounded and staff oflScers who had been in 
the action, I remember many questions asked on that 
subject. There was no great comfort to be derived 
from the answers which were generally in profane 
simile. Indeed, I have heard survivors of the war say 
since, that some of the fighting of the Union troops 
that day equaled or surpassed any they ever saw from 
first to last."* 

The disillusion came sooner than expected. Early 
on the morning of July 2nd, Longstreet commanding 
the Confederate right at Gettysburg, suggested to Lee 
to throw his army around Meade's left so as to interpose 
between the Union forces and Washington, and then in 

* Battles and Leaders of the Civil War. Vol. Ill, page 358. 



120 MY LITTI.K WAR EXPERIENCE. 

a strong defensive position compel Meade to attack. 
To which Lee, apprehensive of a Union retreat, replied: 
" A<9, the enemy is there and I am going to attack him 
there y'^' 

But for the Chanceilorsville and Fredericksburg dis- 
asters, there would have been no Gettysburg. Truly, 
"God moves in a mysterious way, his wonders to per- 
form." He prolonged the struggle for lour devastating 
and sanguinary years that all the fight, at first so de- 
monstrative and vehement on both sides, might be 
knocked so effectually out of both belligerents, that 
there should never be a recurrence of fratricidal war be- 
tween the North and South. The success was com- 
plete. 



* Battles and Leaders of the Civil War. Vol. Ill, page 393. 



Our Return Home. 

Hospitable Reception Given by the Citizens of 
York. Heroism Extolled. York County in 
THE Revolutionary War. Continental Con- 
gress IN YoRKTowN. Generals Lafayette, 
Gates and Wilkinson and the Conway Cabal 
IN York, The Unfought Duel. Ducking of 
the Tory Rector in York. Banquet on the 
Commons to the 130TH Regiment. Witty 
Toasts and Eloquent Speeches. Complimen- 
tary Order by our Division Commander, Gen. 
French. 

OUR term of enlistment having expired, May 12th, 
we were ordered to Harrisburg to be mustered 
out of service. When in sight of York, we all 
regretted that the regiment was not permitted to stop 
over and march with the veteran swing through the 
streets of York to enable our people to see what lully- 
accoutred veterans, begrimed, bedraggled and in any- 
thing but a dress-parade aspect, looked like. 

At Harrisburg, May 21st, 1863, ^^e regiment was 
mustered out of service and our rifles and cartridge 
boxes turned over to the State. After ablutions in the 
Susquehanna and a little burnishing and beautifying, 



122 MY UTTLB WAR EXPERIENCE. 

we returned to York where we were received by th e 
hospital Patapsco Guards and various civic societies. 
After a short parade through the streets, abloom with 
the stars and stripes and amid the cheers of the patriotic 
populace, we were banquetted under an open canvas with- 
in the United States Hospital enclosure on the Commons. 

From the York Gazette of May 19, 1863. 

"The 130th Penna. Regiment. 

" This gallant regiment of nine months men composed of four com- 
panies from this county and six from our neighbor Cumberland passed 
through this Borough on their way to Harrisburg to be mustered out of the 
service, their time having expired on Friday morning last about 6 o'clock. 
As soon as they shall have been paid off and mustered out, those from 
this county will return to our midst, and as will be seen from the proceed- 
ings of a public meeting published elsewhere be received in this borough 
in a manner befitting their gallantry and distinguished services. This 
regiment has participated in several of the hardest battles of the war and 
on no occasion gave us any reason to do else but feel proud of them; they 
were always among the 'bravest of the brave.' The order of General 
French, their division commander, discharging them from the service, 
shows how highly their services were appreciated by him. It is a well- 
merited tribute to the faithfulness and brarery of the regiment." 

York county responded patriotically to every national 
emergency. In proportion to population it furnished 
more troops in the Revolutionary war than any other 
portion of the Colonies. It extended most hospitable 
shelter to the Continental Congress from September 
1/77 to June 1778, during the sessions of which the 
Articles of Federation were passed. It was in York 
that the Conway Cabal was rebuked and stifled by La- 
fayette,* and in consequence of which Generals Gates 
and Wilkinson met to fight a duel in 1778 at St. John's 
Episcopal "English" Church,! whose Tory rector was 



^App. Note 13. tApp. Note 14. 



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FOURTH COMPANY IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. (pp 122, 196) 



OUR RETURN HOME. 12S 

ducked a few years before.* The brilliant record of 
York County in all National events has never be sur- 
passed, f 

From the York Gazette of May 19, 1863. 
" Proceedings of the Town Meeting for the Reception of the 
130th Pennsylvania Volunteers. 

In pursuance of the public call a large meeting of the citizens of York 
Borough and vicinity was held in the Court House on Friday evening the 
15th inst., for the purpose of making arrangements and for giving a proper 
reception for Colonel Maish's 130th Regiment. The meeting was organ- 
zed by calling John Evans, Esq., to the chair and the election of the fol- 
lowing vice presidents and secretaries: 
Vice Presidents — York Borough. 

First Ward— William Tash, George Welsh, Dr. C. H. Bressler. 
Second Ward — Daniel Hartman, Philip A. Small, S. R. Slaymaker. 
Third Ward— James Kell, J. D. Schall, Dr. E. H. Pentz. 
Fourth Ward — David Small, Abraham Forry, Geo. H. Maish. 
Fifth Ward — Lewis Carl, Daniel Kraber, Alex. Wantz. 
Hellam Township — Frederick Sultzbach. 
Dover Township — Henry Bender. 

Manchester Township — W. W. Wolf, Emanuel Herman. 
Hopewell Township — Hon. Adam Ebaugh. 
Secretaries: 

E. H. Weiser, James W. Latimer, Hiram Young and William Hay. 
On motion, the following named persons were appointed a committee to 
report resolutions expressive of the objects and views of the meeting: E. 
H. Weiser, C. A. Morris, E. A. King, J. Carl, J. W. Kerr, W. A. Stahle. 
On motion, the following were appointed as committee of arrangements, 
of which it was agreed that the chairman of the meeting, John Evans, Esq., 
should be the chairman. 

First Ward— Dr. C. H. Bresler, Wm. Tash. Second Ward— 

. Third Ward— Jacob D. Schall, Dr. E. H. Pentz. 
Fourth Ward — James Schall, Abraham Forry. Fifth Ward — Daniel 
Kraber, Lewis Carl. Hellam Township — Frederick Sultzbach. Man- 
chester Township— W. W. Wolf. 



^App. Note 15. tApp. Note 16. 



124 MY LITTLE WAR EXPKRIENCE. 

On motion, the orders of Major General French, commanding the divi- 
sion, to which the 130th Regiment was attached, on leaving Falmouth were 
read to the committee and ordered to be printed with the proceedings of 
the meeting. 

On motion. Dr. Palmer, surgeon of the United States Military Hospital 
at York, addressed the meeting and paid a high compliment to the 130th. 

The committee here reported the following resolutions which were adopt- 
ed by acclamation: 

Resolved, That as citizens of York County, we are proud of the noble 
deeds of those of our borough who were sent forth to the fields of battle at 
the call of their country as members of the 130th Penn'a Regiment, and 
that we gratefully welcome them to their homes and parents. 

Resolved, That it becomes us all without distinction of party to receive 
them on their return as brave soldiers, defenders of their country's flag — 
all war-scarred and toil-worn as they are. 

Resolved, That we appreciate and feel proud of the language employed 
in the special order No. 122 of Major General French commanding the 
division to which the 130th was attached, relieving the regiment from duty 
on the 12th inst., which is as follows: 

'The general commanding the division takes pleasure in promulgating 
in orders their gallantry soldier-like bearing and efficiency during their 
entire term of service. 

Within the nine months for which they were enrolled they have partici- 
pated most prominently in the battles of Antietim, Fredericksburg and the 
series of engagements near Chancellorsville. They have lost in that short 
period the Colonel who first brought them into the field, the brave Zinn 
who led them at Fredericksburg. 

Soldiers, you return to your native State which has received lustre from 
the achievements and your devotion to your country's cause. This army 
the division to which you are attached, although they lose you, will always 
retain and cherish the credit of your military bearing on all occasions as re- 
flected on them.' 

Resolved, That whilst we rejoice at the return of the survivors of our 
noble regiment, we are not unmindful of those whose lives have been sacri- 
ficed to their country's sacred cause, and that we hereby tender our warm- 
est sympathies to the families and friends of the departed and assure them 



OUR RETURN HOME. 125 

that their memories shall be cherished as long as the vital fires shall burn 
upon our country's altar. 

Resolved, That we hear with pride and pleasure of the bravery and he- 
roic conduct of Colonel Maish and his noble men who come to us bearing 
upon their persons evidences of their noble deeds and sacrifices. 

After the adoption of the resolutions, E. H. Weiser being called for, 
briefly addressed the meeting at the conclusion of which the meeting ad- 
journed with three cheers for Colonal Maish and his Regiment. 

On motion, it was resolved that the proceedings of the meeting be pub- 
lished in all of the papers of the Borough." 



"Headquarters Third Division, Second Corps, Army of the 
Potomac, May 12th, 1863. 
Special Order No. — . Extract. 

III. The 130th and 132nd Pennsylvania Regiments of nine months 
volunteers will be relieved from duty with this division, the first at retreat 
to-day, and the latter at retreat on the 15th inst. ; transportation will be in 
readiness at Falmouth Station at 7 a. m. to-morrow for the 130th, and 132d 
on the 15th, unless otherwise directed. A staff-officer from this head- 
quarters will proceed to Acquia Landing where by roll calls, he will ascer- 
tain that no unauthorized persons leave with the regiment. The general 
commanding the division takes pleasure in promulgating in orders their 
gallantry, soldier-like bearing and efficiency during their entire term of 
service. Within the nine months from which they were enrolled they have 
participated in the battles of Antietam, Fredericksburg, and the series of 
engagements near Chancellorsville; each having lost in that short period 
the Colonel who first brought them into the field, the brave Zinn who led 
the 130th in Fredericksburg, and the gallant Oakfoad of the 132d who fell 
at Antietam. 

Soldiers, you return to your native State which has received lustre from 
your achievements and by your devotion to your country's cause. The 
army and division to which you are attached, although they lose you, will 
always retain and cherish the credit which your military bearing on all 
occasions has so reflected on them. 

Your division commander cherishes the belief that after a sojourn at 
your homes with the friends you are all anxious to behold, those of you 



126 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

who have passed unscathed through the midst of so many dangers will 
again rally round the flag which you have so nobly defended. 
(Signed) 

By command of Major General French, commanding Division. 
John M. Marvell, Chief of Staff and A. A. G., Headquarters Second 

Brigade, May 12th, 1863. 
Official, J. Parke Postles, Captain and A. A. A. G." 

From the York Gazette of May 26th, 1863. 

" Reception of the 130th Pennsylvania Regiment. 
The portion of the 130th Regiment from the Borough and vicinity arriv- 
ed here about four o'clock on Saturday afternoon and were received in a 
becoming manner. At about two o'clock the dispatch announcing their 
departure from Harrisburg was received, when the bells were rung as the 
signal for the closing of stores, &c. On the arrival of the regiment, the 
bells were again rung and the returned volunteers were received on North 
George Street when the procession was formed aad marched over the 
designated route to the barracks where a handsome collation provided by 
the Ladies Aid Society was furnished the war-worn and sun-burned 
heroes. 

The procession was headed by the Patapsco Guards accompanied by the 
Hospital Band, after which followed the returned soldiers. Free Masons, 
Odd Fellows, Red Men, Laurel Fire Company, with their magnificent 
gallery engine drawn by four horses, and a large number of citizens. All 
the flags were thrown to the breeze, the town was filled with people, which 
gave it a lively and animated appearance." 

From the York Gazette of June 2nd, 1863. 

"The Reception of the 130th Regiment." 

We were unable last week to get a full and satisfactory report of the 
proceedings at the welcome home of the true and tried heroes of this regi- 
ment at the hospital where the collation was prepared, and after the re- 
moval of the cloth, the following proceedings took place: 

Regular Toasts. First— The 130th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers: 
As long as the waters of the Antietim and Rappahannock continue to 
murmur a requiem to the brave men who laid down their lives on the 
banks of these now classic streams in defence of the Union and freedom, 
so long shall the heroic deeds of the 130th Regiment, P. V. live in history. 
Responded to by Col. Maish. 






,t--^ 



-■','/ 







From Leslie. 



RETURN OF THE VETERANS. ip121) 




From a Painting. 



THE LAST MUSTER, p 200 



OUR RETURN HOMK. 127 

2. The memory of the gallant dead of the 130th. Standing and in 
silence. 

3. The Union, the Constitution and the flag of the United States. The 
Union containing as it does, the hallowed memories of the past and en- 
folding all our hopes of the future, the Constitution as the charter of our 
rights, and the flag as the cherished and glorious emblem of our privileges, 
are worth all the blood and treasure that has been sacrificed in their es- 
tablishment and defence. Responded to by three cheers. 

4. The President of the United States, patriot and statesman. May 
the God of battles bless him, and may he be supported in all his efiEorts to 
put down treason and rebellion by the association of loyal men throughout 
the land. Standing and in silence. 

5. The army of heroes of this, which like the heroes of '76, their 
bravery, devotion and patriotism entitled them to the honor and gratitude 
of posterity as long as the stars and stripes shall float in the free air of 
America. General Wm. B. Franklin was expected to respond to this toast 
but was called away from town the day before the reception, a letter re- 
gretting his absence was here read. Responded to by J. Carrothers, Esq. 

6. The navy, its gallant achievements in the war of '61 proves that 
America rules the waves. Responded to by Purser Sterret Ramsay. 

7. His Excellency, Gov. Curtin, his untiring real and energy in sus- 
taining the national administration in its efforts to put down the accursed 
rebellion against the constituted authorities of the land, have placed his 
name high on the list of defenders of the Union and have demonstrated 
anew that Pennsylvania is indeed the Keystone of the Federal arch on 
which all other parts depend for support. Responded to by William 
Hay, Esq. 

8. The ladies of the Soldiers' Aid Society like the women of the Rero- 
lution, they have shown their patriotism and devotion in encouraging their 
husbands, brothers and sons to go forth to battle in their country's cause 
and when the heroes have fallen in the fight, or sickness in the camp, 
they have bound up their wounds and given them such comfort as only 
women can. Responded to by E. H. Weiser, Esq. 

9. Volunteers of Pennsylvania, the first to respond to the call of the 
President to defend the Capitol. They followed the flag into the fight and 
will never sheath their swords until the Rebellion is crushed, treason sup- 



128 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

pressed, and the authority of the government is acknowleged from the Po- 
tomac to the Rio Grande. Responded to by G. W. McElroy, Esq. 

The sentiment offered by Purser Ramsay, in response to toast 6th^The 
Ladies Soldiers' Aid Association of York, their patriotic efforts in behalf 
of our brave soldiers returning from the tented field wrhere they have 
served our beloved country so faithfully, cannot be too highly commended. 
May they be rewarded with the blessings of a happy union, domestic and 
potitical, a union of hearts and a union of States, and may the rising gen- 
eration follow their example. 

10. Volunteer toasts. Surgeon Henry Palmer— His skill as a physi- 
cian, devotion as a patriot and the zealous efforts of himself and his corps 
of able assistants, in the relief of the sick and wounded soldiers, have 
made the United States Hospital at York, Pa., a Soldiers' Home; and the 
prayers and gratitude of these brave men will ever follow him. 

At the conclusion of the reading of the toasts, it was announced that by 
request of the ladies, the remnant of the feast, not one-fourth of which had 
been consumed, would be appropriated to the use of the soldiers of the 
Hospital. The Company then adjourned with three rousing cheers for the 
Union." 

The cordial reception and hospitality extended were 
highly appreciated. The general welcome evinced a 
deep sense of gratitude for services faithfully rendered, 
sacrifices heroically made, hardships universally endur- 
ed, and lives fearlessly imperilled. As the soldier 
stood by them, they stood by him. 

" Stand Up for the Soldier Man. 

Stand up; stand for up the soldier man! 

Stand as he stands for you. 
Stand up for the man who does and dares 

For the old Red, White and Blue. 
Send a hail to the soldier man 

Sturdy and stanch and brave. 
For the good God knows when the bugle blows 

Its last song o'er his grave. 



OUR RETURN HOMK. 129 

Stand ap; stand up for the soldier man! 

Nor quibble and criticise; 
God knows you are glad when we need his help, 

That he marches and fights and dies. 
Send a cheer to the soldier man, 

Ready and true and grim; 
Tell him fair for his good deeds there 

His country's proud of him. 

Stand up; stand up for the soldier man! 

Fighting my foe and yours. 
A hundred years has his blood run red 

And constant the strain endures. 
Send a hail to the fighting man. 

Honest of heart and soul; 
With his country love and the flag above, 

And the Great Peace for his goal." 



APPENDIX. 



P^ote I. 

(Page 6.) 

Negro Religious Meeting. 

Negro Religious Meeting in New Orleans be- 
fore THE Civil War. Graphic and Humorous 
Descriptions of the Ministers and Congrega- 
tion WHO EVEN SURPASSED IN THEIR EJACULA- 
TIONS, SHRIEKS AND SPASMS THE " HoWLING DER- 
VISHES " OF THE East. 

From "The Cotton Kingdom " by Olmstead. 
••"V TEW ORLEANS, Sunday, — Walking this morning through a 
i. 1 rather mean neighborhood I was attracted, by a loud chorus 
singing, to the open door of a chapel or small church. I found 
a large congregation of negroes assembled within, and the singing being 
just then concluded, and a negro preacher commencing a sermon. I en- 
tered an empty pew near the entrance. I had no sooner taken a seat, than 
a negro usher came to me, and, in the most polite manner, whispered, 
'Won't you please to let me give you a seat higher up, master, 'long o' 
tudder white folks?' 

I followed him to the uppermost seat, facing the pulpit, where there were 
three other white persons. One of them was a woman — old, very plain, 
and not as well dressed as many of the negroes; another looked like a 
ship's officer, and was probably a member of the police force in undress — 
what we call a spy, when we detect it in Europe; the third was a foreign- 



132 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

looking person, very flashily dressed and sporting a yellow-headed walk- 
ing-stick, and much cheap jewelry. 

The remainder of the congregation consisted entirely of colored persons, 
many of them, however, with light hair, and hardly any perceptible indi- 
cations of having African blood. On the step of the chancel were a number 
of children, and among these one of the loveliest young girls that I ever 
saw. She was a light mulatto, and had an expression of unusual intelli- 
gence and vivacity. During the service she frequently smiled, I thought 
derisively, at the emotions and excitement betrayed by the older people 
about her. She was elegantly dressed, and was accompanied by a younger 
sister, who was also dressed expensively and in good taste, but who was a 
shade darker, though much removed from the blackness of the true negro, 
and of very good features and pleasant expression. 

The preacher was nearly black, with close wooly hair. His figure was 
slight, he seemed to be about thirty years of age, and the expression of his 
face indicated a refined and delicately sensitive nature. His eye was very 
bright, deep and clear; his voice and manner generally quiet and im- 
pressive. 

The text was, ' I have fought a good fight, I have kept the faith; hence- 
forth there is laid up for me a crown of glory;' and the sermon was an ap- 
propriate and generally correct explanatiom of the customs of the Olym- 
pian games, and a proper and often eloquent application of the figure to 
the Christian course of I'fe. Much of the language was highly metaphori- 
cal; the figures long, strange, and complicated, yet sometimes, however, 
beautiful. Words were frequently misplaced, and their meaning evidently 
unapprehended, while the grammar and pronunciation were sometimes 
such as to make the idea intended to be conveyed by the speaker incompre- 
hensible to me. Vulgarism and slang phrases occasionally occured, but 
evidently without any consciousness of impropriety on the part of the 
speaker or his congregation. 

As soon as I had taken my seat, my attention was attracted by an old 
negro near me, whom I supposed for sometime to be suffering under some 
nervous complaint; he trembled, his teeth chattered, and his face, at in- 
tervals, was convulsed. He soon began to respond aloud to the sentiments 
of the preacher, in such words as these: 'Oh, yes!' 'That's it, that's it!' 
'Yes, yes, — glory, yes!' and similar expressions could be heard from all 



NEGRO RRLIGIOUS MEETING. Igg 

parts of the house whenever the speaker's voice was unnsnaUy solemn, or 
his language and manner eloquent or excited. 

Sometinaes the outcries and responses were not confined to ejaculation 
of this kind, but shouts and groans, terrific shrieks, and indescribable ex- 
pressions of ecstacy-of pleasure or agony-and even stamping, jumping 
and clapping of hands were added. The tumult often resembled that of 
an excited political meeting; and I was once surprised to find my own 
muscles all stretched, as if ready for a struggle-my face glowing, and my 
feet stamping-having been affected unconsciously, as men often are, 
with instinctive bodily sympathy with the excitement of the crowd So 
wholly unintellectual was the basis of this excitement, however, that I 
could not, when my mind retroverted to itself, find anv connection or 
meaning in the phrases of the speaker that remained in my memory; and 
I have no doubt it was his 'action' rather than his sentiments that had 
given rise to the excitement of the congregation. 

I took notice as well as I could of a single passage of the sermon. The 
preacher having said that some of the games of the arena, were 'rastlin' 
(wrestling) and boxing, and described how a combatant, determined to 
win the prize, would come boldly up to his adversary and stand square be- 
fore him, looking him straight in the eyes, and while he guarded himself 
with one hand, would give him a 'lick' with the other, continued in these 
words: 'Then would he stop, and turn away his face, and let his adver- 
sary hit back? No, my brethren, no, no! he'd follow up his advantage, 
and give him another lick; and if he fell back, he'd keep close after him,' 
andnotstop?-andnotfaint!-notbe content with merely driving him 
back 1 -but he'd persevere! (ye.s, glory! ) and hit him again! (that's it, 
hit him again, hit him again! oh glory! hi! hi! glory!) drive him into 
the corner! and never, never stop till he had him down! (glory, glory, 
glory! ) and he got his foot on his neck, and the crown of wild olive leaves 
was placed upon his head by the lord of the games. (Ha! ha! glory to 
the Lord! etc. ) It was the custom of the Olympian games, my brethren, 
for the victor to be crowned with a crown of wild olive leaves; but some- 
times, after all, it wouldn't be awarded right, because the lord of the games 
was a poor, frail, erroneous man, and maybe he couldn't see right, or 
maybe he wasn't an honest man, and would have his favorites among the 
combatants, and if his favorite was beaten, be would not allow it, but 



184 MY IJTTLE WAR KXPRRTKNCR. 

would declare that he was the victor, and the crown would descend on his 
head (glory!) But there ain't no danger of that with our fight with the 
world, for our Lord is throned in justice. 'Glory! — oh, yes! yes! — sweet 
Lord! sweet Lord! ) He seeth in secret, and He knoweth all things, and 
there's no chance for a mistake, and if we only will just persevere and 
conquer, and conquer and persevere (yes, sir! Oh, Lord, yes!) and per- 
severe not for a year, or for two year, or ten year, nor for seventy year, 
perhaps; but if we persevere (yes! yes!) — if we persevere — (oh, Lord 
help us! ' — if we persevere unto the end — (Oh, oh! glory! glory! glory!) 
until he calls us home! (Frantic shouting.) Henceforth there is laid up 
for us a crown of immortal glory! — ( Ha! ha! ha! — not a crown of wild 
olive leaves that begin to droop as soon as they touch our brow (oh! oh! 
oh!, but a crown of immortal glory! That fadeth not away! Never be- 
gins to droop! but is immortal in the heavens!' {Tremendous uproar, 
many of the congregation on their feet, and uttering cries and shrieks im- 
possible to be expressed in letters.) The shabby gentleman by my side, 
who had been fast asleep, suddenly awakened, dropped his stick, and 
shouted with all his might, 'Glory to the Lord!' 

The body of the house was filled by the audience; there were galleries, 
but few persons were in them; on one side, two or three boys, and on the 
other, on the seat nearest the pulpit, about a dozen women. 

The preacher was drawing his sermon to a close, and offering some sen- 
sible and pertinent advice, soberly and calmly, and the congregation was 
attentive and comparatively quiet, when a small old woman, perfectly 
black, among those in the gallery, suddenly rose, and began dancing and 
clapping her hands; at first with a slow and measured movement, and 
then with increasing rapidity, at the same time beginning to shout 'ha! 
ha!' The women about her rose, also, and tried to hold her, as there ap- 
peared great danger that she might fall out of the gallery, and those below 
left their pews that she might not fall upon them. 

The preacher continued his remarks — much the best part of his sermon 
— but it was plain that they were wasted ; every one was looking at the danc- 
ing woman in the gallery, and many were shouting and laughing aloud (in 
joyful sympathy, I suppose. ) His eye flashed as he glanced anxiously 
from the woman to the people, and then stopping in the middle of a sen 
tenec, a sad smile came over his face; he closed the book and bowed his 



NEGRO PxELIGIOUS MEETING. 136 

head upon his hands to the desk. A voice in the congregation struck into 
a tune and the whole congregation rose and joined in a roaring song. The 
woman was still shouting and dancing, her head thrown back and rolling 
from one side to the other. Gradually her shout became indistinct, she 
threw her arms wildly about instead of clapping her hands, fell back into 
the arms of her companions, then threw herself forward and embraced 
those before her, then tossed herself from side to side, gasping, and finally 
sunk to the floor, where she remained at the end of the song, kicking, as if 
acting a death struggle. 

Another man now arose iu the pulpit, and gave out a hymn, naming 
number and page, and holding a book before him, though I thought he 
did not read from it, and I did not see another book in the house. Having 
recited seven verses, and repeated the number and page of the hymn, he 
closed the book and commenced to address the congregation. He was a 
tall, full-blooded negro, very black, and with a disgusting expression of 
sensuality, cunning, and vanity in his countenance, and a pompous, patron- 
izing manner — a most striking contrast, in all respects, to the prepossesing, 
quiet, and modest young preacher who preceded him. He was dresstd in 
the loosest form of the fashionable sack overcoat, which he threw ofiE pre- 
sently, showing a white vest, gaudy cravat, and a tight cut-away coat, 
linked together at the breast with jet buttons. He commenced by propos- 
ing to further elucidate the meaning of the apostle's words; they had an 
important bearing, he said, which his brother had not had time to bring 
out adequately before the congregation. At first he leaned carelessly on 
the pulpit cushion, laughing cunningly, and spoke in a low, deep, hoarse, 
indistinct, and confidential tone ; but soon he struck a higher key, drawl- 
ing his sentences like a street salesman, occasionally breaking out into a 
yell with all his strength of extraordinarily powerful lungs, at the same 
time taking a striking attitude and gesturing in an extraordinary manner. 
This would create a frightful excitement in the people, and be responded to 
with the loudest and most terrific shouts. I can compare them to nothing 
else human lever heard. Some times he would turn from the audience 
and assume a personal opponent to be standing by his side in the pulpit. 
Then, after battling for a few minutes in an awiul and majestic manner 
with this man of Belial, whom he addressed constantly as 'sir!' he would 
tarn again to the admiring congregation, and in a familiar, gestulatory, 



136 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

and conversational tone explain the difficulty into which he had got him, 
and then again suddenly turn back upon him, and in a boxing attitude give 
another knock-down reply to his heretical propositions. 

His language was in a great part unintelligible to me, but the congrega- 
tion seemed to enjoy it highly, and encouraged and assisted him in his 
combat with 'Sir' Knight of bis imagination most tumultously; and I soon 
found that this poor gentleman, over whom he rode his high horse 
so fiercely, was one of those 'who take unto themselvos the name of 
Baptist,' and that the name of his own chargee was 'Persererence- 
o£-the- Saints.' 

The ouly intelligent argument that I could discover, was presented under 
the following circumstances. Having made his supposed adversary assert 
that 'if a man would only just believe, and let him bury him under dc 
water, he would be saved,' — he caught up the big pulpit Bible, and using 
it as a catapult, pretended to hurl from it the reply — 'Except ye persevere 
and fight de good fight unto de end, ye shall be damned!' 'That's it, 
that's it!' shouted the delighted audience. 'Yes! you shall be damned! 
Ah! you've got it now, have ye! Pooh! — What's de use o' his tellin' us 
dut ar'.' — he continued, turning to the congregation with a laugh; *wha'» 
de use on't, when we know dat a month arter he's buried 'em under 
de water — whar do we find 'em? Ha! ah, ha! Whar? In de grog- 
shop! (Ha! ha! ha! ha!) Yes, we do, don't we? (Yes! Yes! In de 
rum-hols! (Ha! ha! ha! Yes! yes! oh Lord!) and we know de spirit of 
rum and de spirit of God hasd't got no 'finities. 'Yah! ha! ha! yes! yes! 
dat's it! dats it! Oh, my Jesus! Oh! Oh! glory! glory!) Sut'nly, sah! 
you may launch out upon de ocean a drop of oil way up to Virginny, and 
we'll launch annudder one heah to Lusiana, and when dey meets — no mat- 
ter now how far they deen gone — dey'U unite! Why, sah? Because dey's 
got de'finities, sah! But de spirit of rum haint got nary sort o' 'finity 
with de Spirit,' etc. 

Three of the congregation threw themselves into hysterics during this 
harangue, though none were so violent as that of the woman in the gallery. 
The man I had noticed first from his strange convulsive notions, was shak- 
ing as if in a violent ague, and frequently snatched the sleeve of his coat 
in his teeth as if he would rend it. The speaker at length turned to the 




From a Painting. TH E SLAVE MA F^KET, ANCI ENT ROM E. p 200 




From a Painting. RETURN OF MISSIONARY AND SLAVE. 



NKGPO KKLIGIOUS MEETING. J J}? 

hymn, repeated the number and page and the first two lines. These w^re 
sung, and he repeated the next, and so on, as in the Scotch Pregbyterian 
service. The congregation sang; I think everyone joined, even th. 
children, and the collective sound v/as wonderful. The voices of one or 
two wonaen rose above the rest, and one of these soon began to introduce 
variations, which consisted mainly of shouts of Oh! oh! at a piercing 
height. Many of the singers kept time with their feet, balancing them- 
selves on each alternately, and swinging their bodies accordingly. The 
reading of the lines would be accompanied also by shouts, as during the 
previous discourse. 

When the preacher had concluded reading the last two lines a= the 
smg.ng again proceeded, he raised his own voice above all, turned around 
clapped his hands, and commenced to dance, and laughed aloud-first 
with his back, then with his face to the audience. 

The singing cea.sed, but he contiuued his movements, leaping with in- 
creasing agility, from one side of the- pulpit to the other. The people be- 
low laughed and shouted, and the two other preachers who were shut in the 
pulpit with the dancer, tried hard to keep out of his way, and threw for- 
ward the.r arms and shoulders, to fend off his powerful buffets as he surged 
about between them. Swinging out his arms at random, with a blow of 
his fist he knocked the great Bible spinning off the desk, to the great 
dangerof the children beiow; then threw himself back, jammed the' old 
man, who was trying to restrain him, against the wall. 

At the next heave, he pitched head-foremost into the young preacher 
driving him through the cloor and falling with him half down the stairs' 
«nd after bouncing about a few moments, jerking his arms and legs vio- 
lently, like a supple jack, in every direction, and all the time driving his 
breath with all the noise possible between his set teeth, and trying foam at 
the mouth and act an epileptic fit, there he lay as if dead, the youn. 
preacher, with the same sad smile, and something of shame on his fac-" 
sitting on the stair holding his head on his shoulder, and gra.spinP one of 
his hands, while his feet were extended up into the pulpit. 

The third man in the pulpit, a short, aged negro, with a smiling face 
a«d a pleasing manner, took the Bible, which was handed to him by one 
of the congregation, laid it upon the desk, and. leaning OT.r it, told th. 



138 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

people, in a gentle, conversational tone, that the 'love feast' would be held 
at four o'clock; gave some instructions about the tickets of admission, and 
severely reproved those, 'who were in the habit of coming late, and insisted 
upon being let in after the doors were locked. He then announced that 
the doxology would be sung, which accordingly followed, another woman 
going into hysterics at the close. The prostrate man rose, and released 
the young preacher, who pronounced the Apostles' blessing, and the 
congregation slowly passed out, chatting and saluting one another as 
they went, and bearing not the slightest mark of the previous excite- 
ment" 



(Page 8.) 



Assault upon Senator Sumner. 

The Murderous Assault by Preston Brooks upon 
Senator Charles Sumner in 1856. A most 
interesting description of the acrimonious 
Slavery Debate that led to it, and the preg- 
nant CONSEQUENCES. 

THE brutal and cowardly assault in the United 
States Senate Chamber in 1856 by Preston 
Brooks, a member of the House from South 
Carolina, upon Charles Sumner, a Senator from Massa 
chusetts, did more to arouse indignation and solidify 
public opinion in the North against the slave oligarchies 
of the South than any other act preceding the bombard- 
ment of Fort Sumter. 

The fierce debate arose in the »Senate upon the discus- 
sion of " The Crime against Kansas" — the suppression 
by intimidation, fraud and murder of the verdict of the 
freemen of Kansas in favor of the admission of the ter- 
ritory as a free State, by out-laws, ruflflans and assassins 
who emigrated mostly from Missouri for the purpose of 
coercing it into a slave State. Ballot boxes were plund- 



140 MY LITTLE WAR iiXPEKIENCE. 

ered and horrid and incredible atrocities committed to 
accomplish the nefarious purpose. 

Senator Sumner was a very learned and fearless Sen- 
ator, although somewhat conceited and overbearing. 
His philippics against slavery breathed defiance to the 
South and challenged the admiration of the North. 
His speeches against the slave-power were sometimes 
extravagant in statement, somewhat turgid in rhetoric 
and on the occasion in question unduly personal. Sena- 
tor Butler, the object of the attack, and Brooks came 
from fine South Carolina families and their private de- 
portment was unexceptional. 

Rhodes, in his admirable History of the United 
States, gives the subjoined account of the murderous 
assault: 

"If there had been no more to Sumner's speech than the invective 
against the slave povirer, be v/ould not have been assaulted by Preston 
Brooks. Nor is it probable that the bitter attack which the Senator made 
on South Carolina would have provoked the violence had it not been coupl- 
ed with personal allusions to Senator Butler, who was a kinsman of Brooks. 
In order that the whole eztent of the provocation may be understood, it is 
necessary to quote Sumner's most exasperating reflections. 'The Senator 
from South Carolina, (Butler,)' he said, 'and the Senator from Illinois, 
(Douglass,) who, though unlike as Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, yet, 
like this couple, sally forth together ... in championship of human 
wrongs.' 

'The Senator from South Carolina has read many books of chivalry, 
and believes himself a chivalrous knight, with sentiments of honor, and 
courage, of course, he has chosen a mistress to whom he has made his 
vows, and who, although ugly to others i.«! always lovely to him; though 
polluted in the sight of the world, is chaste in his sight — I mean the harlot 
slavery. For her his tongue is always profuse in words. Let her be im- 
peached in character, or in any proposition made to shut her out from the 
extension of her wantoness, and no extravagance of manner or hardihood 
of assertion is then too great for this Senator. The frenzy of Don Quixote, 



ASSAULT UPON SENATOR SUMNRR. 141 

in behalf of his wench, Dulcinea del Toboso, is all surpassed.' On the 
second day of his speech Sumner said: 'With regret I come upon the 
Senator from South Carolina (Butler) who, omnipresent in this debate, 
overflowed with rage at the simple suggestion that Kansas had applied for 
admission as a State; and, with incoherent phrases, discharged the loose 
expectoration of his speech upon her representative and then upon her 
people. There was no extravagance of the ancient parliamentary debate 
which he did not repeat; nor was there any possible deviation from truth 
which he did not make . . . The Senator touches nothing which he 
does not disfigure — with error, sometimes of principle, sometimes of fact. 
He shows an incapacity of accuracy, whether in stating the Constitution 
or in stating the law, whether in the details of statistics or the diversions 
of scholarship. He cannot open his mouth but out there flies a blunder.' 

A careful perusal of Butler's remarks, as published in the Congressional 
Globe, fails to disclose the reason of this bitter personal attack. His re- 
marks were moderate. He made no reference to Sumner. . . . The 
vituperation was unworthy of him and his cause, and the allusion to But- 
ler's condition while speaking, ungenerous and pharisaical- The attack 
was especially unfair, as Butler was not in Washington, and Sumner made 
note of his absence. It was said that Seward, who read the speech before 
delivery, advised Sumner to tone down its offensive remarks, and he and 
Wade regretted the personal attack. But Sumner was not 'fully conscious 
of the stinging force of his language.' To that, and because he was ter- 
ribly in earnest, must be attributed the imperfections of the .speech. He 
would annihilate the slave power, and he selected South Carolina and her 
Senator as vulnerable points of attack. 

The whole story of Sumner's philippics, and its result, cannot be told 
without reference to his sharp critcism of Douglass. 'The Senator from 
Illinois,' he said, 'is the squire of slavery, its very Sancho Panza, ready 
to do all its humiliating offices. This Senator, in his labored address, vindi- 
cating his labored report -piling one mass of elaborate error upon another 
mass — on this floor, the Senator issued his rescript, requiring submission 
to the usurped power of Kansas; and this was accompanied by a manner 
— all his own — such as befits the tyrannical threat. Very well. Let the 
Senator try. I tell him now that he cannot enforce any such submission. 
The Senator, with th^; slave power at his back is strong; but he is not 
strong enough for this purpose. He is bold. He shrinks from nothing. 



142 MY LITTLR WAR EXPKRIRNCE. 

Like Danton, he may cry: 'L 'auiiace! 1' audace! toujours 1' audace!' 
but even his audacity cannot compass the work. The Senator copies the 
British oE&cer, who, with boastful swagger, said that with the hilt of his 
sword, he would cram the 'stamps' down the throats of the American 
people, and he will meet a similar failure.' 

When Sumner sat down, Cass, the Nestor of the Senate, rose and said: 
'I have listened with equal regret and surprise to the speech of the honor- 
able Senator from Massachusetts. Such a speech — the most un-American 
and unpatriotic that ever grated on the ears of the members of this high 
body — I hope never to hear again here or elsewhere.' 

When Cass had finished, Douglass spoke of the 'depth of malignity that 
issued from every sentence' of Sumner's speech. 'Is it his object,' Doug- 
lass asked, 'to provoke some of us to kick him as we would a dog in the 
street, that he may get sympathy upon the just chastisement?' 'If the 
Senator,' Douglass continued, 'had said such harsh things on the spur of 
the moment, and then apologized for them in his coolor hours, I could re- 
spect him much more than if he had never made such a departure from the 
rules of the Senate . . . But it has been the subject of conversation 
for weeks that the Senator from Massachusetts had his speech written, 
printed, committed to memory . . The libels, the gross insults, 

which we have heard to-day have been conned over, written with a coob 
deliberate malignity, repeated from night to night in order to catch the ap- 
propriate grace; and then he came hereto spit forth that malignity upon 
men who differ from him — for that is their offence.' Douglass further- 
more charged Sumner with being a perjurer, for he had sworn to support 
the Constitution and yet publicly denied that he would render obedience to 
the fugitive law. Sumner's reply was exasperating. 'Let the Senator re- 
member,' he said, 'that the bowie-knife and the bludgeon are not the 
proper emblems of senatorial debate. Let him remember that the swag- 
ger of Bob Acres and the ferocity of the Malay cannot add dignity to this 
body . . that no person with the upright form of man can be allowed, 

without violation of all decency, to switch out from his tongue the perpet- 
ual stench of offensive personality,' taking for a model 'the noisome squat 
and nameless animal.' Dous:lass made an insulting retort, and Sumner 
rejoined: 'Mr. President, again the Senator has switched his tongue, and 
again he fills the Senate with its offensive odor.' Douglass ended the 



ASSAULT UPON SENATOR SUMNER. 148 

angry colloquy by declaring that a man whonm he had branded in the Senate 
with falsehood was not worthy of a reply.' 

Two days after this exciting debate (May 22nd,) when the Senate at 
the close of a short session adjourned, Sumner remained in the Chamber 
occupied in writing letters. Becoming deeply engaged, he drew his arm 
chair close to his desk, bent over his writting, and while in this position 
was approached by Brooks, a representative from South Carolina and a 
kinsman of Senator Butler. Brooks standing before and directly over 
him, said 'I have read your speech twice over carefully. It is a libel on 
South Carolina and Mr. Butler, who is a relative of mine.' As he pro- 
nounced the la.st word, he hit Sumner on the head with his cane with the 
force that a dragoon would give to a sabre-blow. Sumner was more than 
six feet in height and of powerful frame, but penned under the desk he 
could offer no resistance, and Brooks continued the blows on his de- 
fenceless head. The cane broke, but the South Carolinian went on beat- 
ing his victim v/ith the butt. The first blow stunned and blinded Sumner 
but instinctively and with powerful effort he wrenched the desk from its 
fastenings, stood up, and with spasmodic and wildly directed efforts at- 
tempted unavailingly to protect himself. Brooks took hold of him, and, 
while he was reeling and staggering about, struck him again and again. 
The assailant did not desist until his arm was seized by one who rushed to 
the spot to stop the assault. At that moment Sumner, reeling, staggering 
backwards and sideways, fell to the floor bleeding profusely and covered 
with his blood. 

The injury received by Sumner was much more severe than was at first 
thought by his physicians and friends." 

The blows would have killed. most men. Sumner's 
iron constitution and perfect health warded oflf a fatal 
result. His spinal column was seriously affected. He 
was unable to regularly resume his senatorial career until 
December 1859, nor did he speak again until June i86o- 
Brooks resigned his seat in the House but was immedi- 
ately re-elected by an almost unanimous majority. 
Brooks died in the following January, but not before he 
had confessed to his friend, Orr, that he was sick as the 



144 



MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 



representative of bullies and disgusted at receiving tes- 
timonials of their esteem. Butler lived but a few days 
over a year from the time that the assault was made in 
satistaction of what was deemed his injured honor. 



\ 



(Page 10.) 



Free in Fight in Congress, 1858. 

The Swagger of Southern Fire-eaters is re- 
sented BY BLOWS. Struggling Masses in Fis- 
tic Conflict. Grow fells Keitt. Ludicrous 
end of the row. How the loss of the wig 
OF Gen. Barksdale (afterwards killed at 
Gettysburg,) stopped the general Melee. 

THE decade preceding the Civil War was the most 
exciting ten years of Congressional legislation. 
The passions of men were influenced by the 
struggle over the question of the extension or restriction 
of the limits of slavery. On the afternoon of February 
5th, 1858, the racket in the National House of Repre- 
sentatives commenced with a struggle as to whether 
the President's Message on the Lecompton Constitu- 
tion of Kansas should be referred to the Democratic 
Committe on Territorities or to a select committee of 
fifteen. The session was protracted into the night, and 
after midnight but few spectators remained in the gal- 
leries. Those Representives who could secure sofas en- 
joyed naps between the roll-calls, while others visited 



146 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

the Committee rooms, in which were private supplies of 
refreshments. 

Upon the question ot ordering the previous question 
on the motion to refer the President's Message to a select 
Committee of fifteen, a fillibuster was begun which last- 
ed throughout the night. At. 2 a. m. Galusha A. Grow, 
of Pennsylvania, entered the arena and plunged into the 
controversy that raged with all the force of his nature. 
He was a young man, ardent and strong of conviction, 
ready, resolute, resourceful, ot commanding presence 
and powerful voice, athletic and muscular. 

Mr. Grow was standing near the extreme right on the 
Democratic side talking with Mr. Hickman, an anti- 
Lecompton Democrat from his State. 

Nearby, on the adjacent aisle, sat Mr. Keitt, of South 
Carolina. Mr. Quitman, of Georgia, from his place, 
asked unamious consent to make a suggestion. 

This Mr. Grow refused to give, but at the request of 
Mr. English, of Indiana, afterwards the candidate for 
Vice-President on the ticket with Gen. Hancock, he 
withdrew the objection. Mr. Quitman's suggestion was 
that in view of the fact that the pending motion could 
result in no good, all motions subsequent to the motion 
for the previous question on Mr. Harris' motion to refer, 
be withdrawn. 

Whether or not this would have been done it is im- 
possible to say, for in the meantime Keitt, resenting 
Grow's objection, rose from his reat, and going to where 
Grow was standing, insolently inquired: 

" What do you mean by objecting? If you want to 
object, go over to your own side." 

Grow responded: " It's a free hall; I'll be where I 
please." 



FRKK FIGHT IN CONGRESS, 1858. 147 

Keitt lost control of himself at this, which was not 
strange, for every one's nerves were on edge over the 
strain of the protracted session. He sneered: 

" You're nothing but a Black Republican puppy. Go 
back to your own side." 

Mr. Grow, still keeping himselt in hand, said: "No 
matter what I am, no nigger driver can crack his whip 
over me." 

Then Keitt struck at Grow and instantly, of course, 
the House was in the utmost disorder and excitement. 
While Grow and Keitt were indulging in these person- 
alities, Reuben Davis, of Mississippi, a brother of Jeffer- 
son Davis, had come up to them, and he seized Keitt by 
the right arm, just as Keitt struck at Grow, making the 
blow of no effect, and pulling him halfway round ex- 
posed him to the full force of Grow's return blow. 

It caught Keitt just under the lett ear and down he 
went on his knees, as far as he could go in the press that 
surrounded him. The area in front of the desk was 
filled with a shrieking, struggling mass of men, in indi- 
vidual conflict wherever possible. 

The Republicans had resolved to defend and support 
Grow, while the Democrats were ready in behalf of 
Keitt. Owen Lovejoy, of Illinois, and Lamar, of Mis- 
sissippi, held the centre of the scene for a moment, 
while one of the most active participants was the us- 
ually staid and placid Mott, of Ohio, a Quaker. 

John F. Potter, of Wisconsin, who afterwards accept- 
ed a challenge from Roger A. Pryor, of Virginia, and 
selected bowie-knives for weapons, who was a dead- 
shot with the rifle, the vanquisher of grizzly bears with 
a knife, and ambidextrous, was one of the first at Grow's 
side, plunging through his foes whom he swept aside, 



148 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

to the right and left. As Keitt went down, William 
Barksdale, of Mississippi, threw his arms around Grow, 
and was still holding him when he received a blow 
from Potter. 

Barksdalle thought it came from Elihu B. Washburne, 
who with his brother Cadwalader, was in the aisle, and 
asked: 

" Did you strike me?" 

Mr. Washburne replied he did not, but Barksdale did 
not believe him, and dropping Grow, drew back to 
strike Washburne. The blow was stopped however 
by Cadwalader Washburne who endeavored to hit back. 

The blow was a glancing one on the forehead, lifting 
from Barksdale's scalp the wig which he wore, until 
then without the knowledge of his associates. The sight 
of his bare poll caused a general shout of laughter, the 
one thing needful to avert further trouble. It afforded 
a vent for the over- wrought feelings of the combatants, 
hostilities ceased, and in a few moments order was re- 
stored. 

Later an adjournment followed until the next Monday, 
when Mr. Keitt made a handsome apology. 



(Page 12.) 



John Brown Invasion. 

The John Brown Raid and Battle at Harper's 
Ferry. His Last Moments and Execution. 
Intense Excitement throughout the Country. 

IN October, 1859, the country was startled with the 
news that Captain John Brown, of Ossawotamie, 
Kansas, — the "old terrifier" helped to make that 
Commonwealth free — with twenty-two followers, 
white and black, captured the United States Arsenal at 
Harper's Ferry, for the purpose of attacking slavery in 
Virginia. By this incursion he expected the slaves in 
the neighborhood, and ultimately through the South, to 
rise in insurrection and thus secure their freedom: Af- 
ter a bloody conflict, Brown, severly wounded, and his 
few surviving comrades surrendered. Brown and some 
of his followers were duly convicted, sentenced to death 
and executed. Brown was a pure idealist imbued with 
a gloomy fanaticism. 

Col. Washington, of Harper's Ferry, who was taken 
prisoner and a hostage to the barricaded Engine House 



150 MY LITTI-K WAR KXPERIKNCK. 

of the t(Avu, said: " Brown was the coolest and firmest 
man I ever saw in defying danger and death. With one 
son dead by his side, and another shot throngh, he felt 
the pnlse of his dying son with one hand, and held his 
rifle with the other, and commanded his men with the 
ntniost composnre, cnconraging them to be firm and sell 
their lives as dearly as they conld." 

Gov. Wise, of Virginia, said: "They are mistaken 
who take Brown to be a madman. He is a bnndle of 
the best nerves I ever saw, cnt and thrnst, and bleeding 
and in bonds. He is a man of clear head, of conrage, 
fortitnde . . ... . and he inspired me with great 

trust in his integrity as a man of truth. He is a fanatic, 
vain and garrulous, but firm and truthful and intelli- 
gent.'^ 

To his younger children he wrote from his prison cell, 
adjuring them to take from them the thought that the 
manner of his death would be ignominious: "I teel 
just as content to die for God's eternal truth on the 
scafibld as in any other way;" and on the same day he 
assured his older children that "a calm peace seems to 
fill my mind by day and by night." With prophetic soul 
he added: "As I trust my life has not been thrown 
away, so I also humbly trust that uiy death will not be 
in vain. God can make it to be a thousand times more 
valuable to his own cause than all the miserable service 
(at best) that I have rendered it during my life." 

"THE LAST MOMENTS OF JOHN BROWN." 

In the picture. Brown's own figure is recognized as 
the the old Puritan, half saint, half savage, who impress- 
ed himself so forcibly upon all who met him. The idea 
ot Hovenden's picture, a faithful transcript of the actual 




From a Painting. 

THE LAST MOMEMTS OF JOHN BROWN, pp 10, 12, 150' 





.•:J^*€, 



M^T 












From Harper's. 

WILD SCENE IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESNETATIVES, WASH>NGTON, 
Upon the passage of the Amendment Abolishing Slavery. 



JOHN BROWN INVASION. 151 

scene, is taken from John G. Whittier's poem of "John 
Brown." 

"John Brown, of Ossawotamie, they led him out to die, 
And lo! a poor slave mother, with her child pressed nigh, 
Then the bold blue eyes grew tender, and the old harsh face grew mild, 

As he stooped between the jeering ranks, and kissed the negro's child." 



The subjoined sublime and beautiful poem by the 
present Commissioner of Pensions is a masterpiece: 

JOHN BROWN. 

BY EUGENE F. WARE. 

" States are not great 
Except as raea may make them; 
Men are not great unless they do and dare. 
But States, like men, 
Have their destinies that take them — 
That bear them on, not knowing why or where. 

The Why repels 
The philo.'vophical searcher — 
The Why and Where all questionings d«fy; 
Until we find 
Far back in youthful nurture 
Prophetic facts that constitute the Why. 

All merit comes 
From braving the unequal; 
All glory comes from daring lo begin, 
Fame loves the state 
That, reckless of the sequel, 
Fights long and well, whether it lose or win. 



152 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

Than our state 
No illustration apter 
Is seen or found of faith and hope and will. 
Take up her story: 
Every leaf and chapter 
Contains a record that conveys a thrill. 



And there is one 
Whose faith, whose fight, whose failing 
Fame shall placard upon the walls of Time. 
He dared to begin, 
Despite the unavailing. 
He dared begin, when failure was a crime. 



When over Africa 
Some future cycle 
Shall sweep the lake gemmed uplands with its surge; 
When as with trumpet 
Of Archangel Michael 
Culture shall bid a colored race emerge; 



When busy cities 
There in constellations 
Shall gleam with spires and palaces and domes. 
With marts wherein 
Is heard the noise of nations; 
With summer groves surrounding stately homes- 
There, future orators 
To cultured freemen 
Shall tell of valor and recount with praise 
Stories of Kansas 
And Lacedaemon — 
Cradles of freedom, then of ancient days. 



JOHN BROWN INVASION. 

From boulevards 
O'erlooking both Nyanzas 
The statued bronze shall glitter in the sun, 
With rugged lettering; 
John Brown of Kansas: 
He dared begin; 

He lost; 
But losiag, won. 



153 



v^^^^^^^^' 



\ P»g<" 14. "' 



Union Meeting in York, 1861. 

From the York Gazette, January 16, 1861. 
"* T N pursuance of a call, a large number of the citizens of this Bor- 
Jl ough and County assembled in the Court House, on last Tuesday 
evening, for the purpose of considering the present condition of 
our National affairs, and the meeting was organized by calling the Hon. 
Adam Ebaugh, to the chair, and appointing as Vice Presidents, Col. John 
Hough, Wesley Test, James Cameron, Wm. Smith, (Druggist,! John H. 
Hyde, Hon. Robert J. Fisher, G. Edward Hersh, Major A. N. Rutledge, 
James L. McCall, Capt. Geo. W. Bollinger, E. C. Parkhurst, Capt. Thomas 
A. Ziegle, Hon. Henry Logan, Alex. J. Frey, Hon. John Reiman, E. C. 
Eppley, John A. Anderson, T. Kirk White, Wm. Woods, William D. Elliott, 
and as secreta.ies, Dr. H. G. Bussey, Col. Wm. L. Picking, Geo. Fisher, 
Wm. H. Albright, J. A. Smyser, D. Wagner Barnitz, Jacob Small, Charles 
A. Stair, Charles E. Smyser, Horace Bonham and Henry Myers, Jr. 

On motion, the following committee, consisting of thirty-three members, 
was appointed to draft resolutions expressive of the meeting: Dr. H. G. 
Bussey, Adam H. Smith, D. B. Prince, P. S. Baum, Jno. B. Sayers, 
Tbos. Cooney, Benj. Sargent, David E. Small, Wm. Reeser, Gen. Geo. 
Hay, Henry L. Fisher, Chas. Folgan, Wm. Matthews, Wm. B. Stein, R. 
G. Wallace, .Tesse Bortner, Col. .Joseph Keedy, John Strickler, Henry 
Stroman, John DeardorCE, David Fulton, Col. Robert Graham, Levi G. 
Kinsley, Henry Ginter, George Wehrly, Edie Patterson, Henry Lanius, 
Peter Schinuck. Samuel Mann. James H. Smith, Aaron J. Blackford, and 



UNION MHETING IN YORK. 1861. ] of, 

Wm. Laumaster. The meeting was ably addressed by the Hon. Robert J. 
Fisher, V. K. Keesey, Esq., E. H. Weiser, Esq., H. L. Fisher, Esq., 
Alfred E. Lewis, Esq., of this p,ace, and .Tas. T. Buchanan, Esq., 
of Baltimore. The committee, through their chairman, Dr. Bnssey, re- 
ported the following resolutions, which were unanimously adopted: 

'Resolved, That the present crisis in our national affairs imperatively 
demands of the patriot a total sacrifice of all partisan feeling, and an earn- 
est, decided, and effective support of the National administration in vindi- 
cating the Constitution, in enforcing the laws.' 

'Resolved, That this government was established by the people of the 
United States, for the purpose of forming a more perfect FJaion, establish- 
ing justice, insuring domestic tranquility, providing for the common de. 
fense, promoting the general welfare, and securing the blessings of liberty 
for themselves and their posterity.' 

'Resolved, That we deny the right of any State to secede at pleasure 
from this Union, and to carry with it the property of the United States 
within its limit.' " 




(Page 15.) 



Fearful Excitement in York. 

" Large and Enthusiastic Town Meeting, April 
i8th, 1861. Patriotic Speeches and Resolutions. 
Aid for the Families of York Citizen Soldiers. 
Telegraph and Railroad Communications with 
Baltimore Suspended. Ordering off and De- 
parture OF THE York Military. Passage of 
Troops. Patriotism of York Citizens." 

From the York Gazette, April 26, 1861. 
••'T~^HE week just passed has been one of fearful interest and sus- 
X pense throughout the land, but particularly so in our borough, 
the citizens of which have, within that time, seen the inaugura- 
tion of a terrible civil war, almost as it were, upon their very borders. 

The news of the attack upon, and capture of Ft. Sumter, and that the 
President had called for 75,000 troops, caused a feeling of the most in- 
tense excitement, and the pervading topic of the community was, 'Warr 
War!! War!!! The telegraph office was besieged by anxious crowds, 
while the daily papers and extras were seized upon with avidity by all class- 
es. All the flags of the town were flung to the breeze, while fair hands were 
busily engaged in the manufacture of these, so that our citizens might tes- 
tify by this display their devotion to the glorious Stars and Stripes of our 
country. At the present writing, flags innumerable are floating beautifully 









/J.' 



^^4?_-€^*<AUfA 



'^ 






<^ 



^''^^^.^. 












From Spangler Annals. 
FAC-SIMILE (REDUCED) OF MUSTFR ROLL OF CAPTAIIV RUDOLF SPENGLER'S 
SIXTH YORK COMPANY, in the REVOLUTIONARY WAR, FORMED 1776. 

*pp 122, 196) 



FEARFUL HXCITFMKNT IN YORK. 157 

and gracefully at various points. They are so numerous that nothing of 
the kind was seen in York before, and none can look upon the beautiful 
sight without a feeling of love and admiration for the Sa^. which has so 
long protected them, and which has been outrageously insulted, not by a 
foreign foe, but by those who like ourselves, have grown up and prospered 
beneath its 'bright stars and broad stripes.' The three largest are sus- 
pended from the Republican Office, the Tremont House, and the Gazette 
Office. On Saturday a*'ternoon the Worth Infantry Band was kept busy 
attending the various flag raisings, at which their services were requested. 
About half-past two o'clock, they attended the raising of a flag near the 
lumber office of H. Small & Sons. The pole to which it is attached is 
nearly one hundred feet high, and as straight as an arrow. Patriotic ad- 
dresses were delivered by Messrs. Henry L. Fisher, John Gibson and J. 
W. Bittenger. Vocal music was in attendance. Immediately afterwards, 
another flag was hoisted upon the car shops of Messrs. Billmeyer & Small, 
and the band then proceeded to the raising of the flag in George Street. 
Thence they proceeded to the residence of Mr. Gresley west of the bridge, 
where a large and beautiful flag was run up In the evening the Conti- 
nental Club flung a beautiful flag to the breeze, the band meanwhile play- 
ing national airs. A number o£ other flags were strung out on Saturday, 
with less ceremony. On Wednesday, our military received notice that 
their services would be required, and they were ordered to report at Har- 
risburj?, on Monday. Great preparatiotis for their departure were imme- 
diately commenced, and their ranks were soon fllled with a sufficient num- 
ber. In pursuance of a general call, the people of this place assembled 
in great numbers, in the Court House, on last Thursday evening for the 
purpose of expressing their sense of the present condition of our National 
afiEairs, and to ofiEer aid to those called into service. The following gentle- 
men were chosen officers of the meeting: 

President — John Evans, Esq. Vice Pre«idents — Adam Klinefelter, C. 
A. Morris, David Small, Daniel Kraber, Peter Mclntyre, A. J. Glossbren- 
ner, Philip A. Small, Henry Welsh, H. L. Fisher, Samuel Wagner, V. K. 
Keesey, Abraham Forry, George Welsh, Sr., Henry Caslow. 

Steretaries — John N. A. Kolb, Michael Gallagher, WiJ;:ir!u L. Picking. 

The president in a short and appropriate speech stated the object of the 
iD*«tizi{, wb«n, on motion of John Gibson, Esq , a commic^e composed of 



158 



MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCB. 



John Gibson, Dr. John F. Fisher, Henry L. Fisher, Alex. Underwood, 
Lieut. C. H. "Wells, Dr. H. M. McClellan, Philip Smyser, Dr. Alex. 
Small, D. 3. Prince, John R. Donnell, Dr. Jacob Hay, Jr., and George 
W. Stair was appointed to prepare resolutions embodying the spirit of 
the meeting." 



(Page 16.) 



'The War Excitement in York." 

Arrival of the Military. Over Five Thousand 
Troops Quartered in York. Return of the 
York Companies. Immense County Meeting. 
Appropriation of $10,000 by the Commissioners 
and $5,000.00 Subscribed for the Families of 
Soldiers. Formation of a Home Guard. 

From the York Gazette of May 3, 1861. 

April 30th, 1861. 
• * ^~^ INCE our last issue, many events of interest have occurred in 

wj^ our midst. During the entire day of Monday, provision was 
being made for the supply of troops at the Cockeysville camp. 
An immense number of bullocks were slaughtered, and the beef placed 
upon cars for shipment to that place; but as it was afterwards ascer- 
tained, that the troops were to return and be quartered here, it was 
unloaded, and taken to the Fair Grounds, where a portion of it was 
cooked. A large quantity was cooked in the houses of our citizens. The 
Hanover companies which arrived on Thursday evening, were quartered 
on the Fair Grounds, and assisted in the preparations for the reception 
of the expected troops. 

Another immense meeting was held in the Court House on Monday 
•veiling, the 22d inst., for the purpose of efEecting an organization, and 



160 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERrENCE. 

of providing means for the defence of our country, during these trouble- 
some times. The occasion of the meeting being the evening of the first 
day of the Court week, citizens from every section of the county were 
present, and joined most heartily and earnestly in the wild enthusiasm, 
which is firing so many of the hearts of our brave countrymen through- 
out our land." 

"The meeting was called by Robert J. Fisher, as President; Vice- 
Presidents, C. A. Morris, 1st Ward; P. A. Small, 2nd Ward; Peter 
Mclntyre, 3rd Ward; George Albright, 4th Ward; Joseph Smyser, 5th 
Ward, John Brillinger, Manchester; Daniel Loucks, Springgarden ; F. 
Sultzbach, Hellam; Tobias Dietz, Windsor; Adam Paules, Lower Wind- 
sor; James Cook, Wrightsville; A. C. McCurdy, Peachbottom; John 
Smeltzer, Chanceford; William Caslow, Lower Chanceford; Henry 
Runkle, Fawn; Andrew Wallace, Hopewell; Nathan Sheffer, Shrews- 
bury; Benj. Lease, North Codorus; John Stough, Springfield; Adam 
H. Smith, Heidelberg; George Snyder, Manheim; Daniel C. Myers, 
West Manheim; Jacob Greenfield, Fairview; Jesse Frysinger, Hanover 
Borough; Jacob Stickel, Washington; Jacob Bentz, (of Joseph), War- 
rington; John Evans, Franklin; Solomon Tate, Monaghan; H. G. Little, 
Carroll; John Ort, Newberry; Jacob Brenneman, Conewago; George 
Dosch, Jackson; J. B. Baughman, Paradise; John Hoover, Dover; Wii- 
iiam Landis, West Manchester; James Peeling, York. 

Secretaries — Horace Bonham, David Small, G. C. Stair, Oliver Stuck, 
David A. Frey, Jacob Keech. 

On motion of John Evans, Esq., the following committee was appointed 
by the chair: Committee on resolutions, John Evans, Henry Welsh, 
Borough; Adam Ebaugh, Hopewell; Samuel N. Bailey, Carroll; Thomas 
Cochran, John E. Moore, Fairview; H. G. Bussey, Shrewsbury; William 
S. Roland, Borough ; Robert M. Smith, Wrightsville; V. C. T. Eckert, 
Hanover; Hugh Ross, Chanceford; Henry L. Fisher, Borough; James 
A. Murphy, Stewartstown. "The County Commissioners appropriated 
$10,000.00, and $5,000.00 additional was subscribed." 

The volunteers, on Monday evening, the 23d, elected the following 
officers: Theodore D. Cochran, Captain; Michael Gallagher, First Lieu- 
tenant; A. Duncan Yocum, Second Lieutenant; George Smith, First 
Sergeant; Jacob Sheetz, Second Sergeant; Edie Patterson, Third 
Sergeant; Theodore Trumbo, Fourth Sergeant; Henry Buckingham, 



WAR EXCITEMENT IN YORK. 161 

First Corporal; Charles D. Henry, Second Corporal; Jacob Buckminster, 
Third Corporal; Andrew Rodes, Fourth Corporal." 

More Troops at Camp Scott, York. 
"On Monday night, a company arrived from Gettysburg, and were 
quartered on the Fair Grounds. On Tuesday morning, about ten o'clock 
the three regiments, which had been encamped near Cockeysville, arrived, 
and were likewise quartered on the Fair Grounds, where ample provisions 
had been made for their reception. The camp there established has been 
named Camp Scott. The men, on their arrival, looked much fatigued 
and weatherbeaten. They were mostly without uniforms, but all armed. 
They only carried about twenty rounds of ammunition apiece. The 
Worth Infantry and York Rifles arrived at the same time and were 
cheered enthusiastically in their progress from the depot. The only 
brass band with the troops, is that of the Lancaster Fencibles, which has 
been chosen as the regiment band of the First Regiment. They, how- 
ever, furnish the music for all the drills for all the regiments. On the 
26th two more Pennsylvania Regiments arrived, and over 5,000 troops 
are now in Camp." 

Ladies War Meeting. 

April 30, 1861. 

"Messrs. EDiTORS:-It is no doubt generally known to our citizens 
that the ladies of the Borough had a meeting on Friday last, to consider 
measures for promoting the comfort of the sick soldiers now lying on the 
camp grounds. It is proposed here to give a short account of their pro- 
ceedings. Late on Friday morning bills were distributed partially in the 
town, and it was gratifying to see, that upon such short notice so large 
and respectable a number was in attendance. For want of time, the 
distribution was not made as general as was desired, and many of the 
ladies who would have been glad to give countenance to the measure, 
remained entirely ignorant of the matter. The meeting was duly organ- 
ized by appointing the different ofEcers, among whom were Mrs. Samuel 
Smyser, as president, and Mrs. C. A. Morris, as treasurer. It was also 
proposed to appoint an executive committee, of one from each ward, with 
the privilege of adding to their number. The following was the result: 

First Ward— Mrs. Dr. Roland. 

Second Ward— Mrs. Samuel Smyser. 

Third Ward—Mrs, Knause. 



162 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

Fourth Ward — Mrs. G. A. Barnitz. 

Fifth Ward — Miss Ellen Smyser. 

" It was arranged by the ladies that each ward committee should take 
their turn wee>kly, that they should visit the sick daily, inquire into their 
wants, and then call upon the citizens to furnish the necessaries. It is, 
therefore, suggested to our people who have shown such a good spirit 
since the troops came among us, that anything they wish to supply should 
be done through this committee. In this way only a proper system may 
be observed, the exact articles wanted can be obtained, the supply will be 
regular, not at one time too much, and at another too little. It may not 
be out of place here to say that it was gratifying to observe the good 
feeling maniEested at the meeting on Friday. The ladies evinced strongly 
that benevolent spirit so characteristic of their sex. One lady even wen* 
so far as to offer her house as an infirmary for those sick men who left 
their homes to fight in the battle of their country, but who were now 
prostrated with disease. The ladies entered at once upon their duties. 
No fear need be apprehended that our sick strangers will go uncared iox> 
with such patriotic ladies to watch over them." 

May Snow Storm. 

May 6th, 1861. 

" Since the advent of the present month, the weather has rather 
resembled that of mid-winter than of the middle of spring. Wednesday 
and Thursday were both cold and disagreeable, and on Friday snow 
commenced falling and continued during the day, and part of Saturday. 
It fell in such largf quantities, that some of the quarters at Camp Scott 
were overflowed with water, and a large number of soldiers, had con- 
sequently to be quaitered in various buildings in town. At the present 
writing, on Monday afternoon, the weather is rainy, with little prospects 
of a change." 

Pole Raising in Centre Square. 

" On Monday afternoon or last week a large and beautiful pine pole 
was raised in Centre Square between the two market houses. While 
the pole was being raised in its piace, addresses were delivered to 
the large crowd present, by the Hon. Robert J. Fisher, and the Rev. 
J. A. Ross, of the M. E. Church. After the addresses, a beautiful 




.-yl 







From Spangler Annals. CENTRE SQUARE, YORK, PA. 




From Spanrler Annals. EAST MARKET STREET, YORK. PA. 



WAR EXCITEMENT IN YORK. 163 

bunting flag was run up, the band meanwhile playing the ' Star 
Spangled Banner.' Since then a larger flag, 35 feet in length and 
of heavier material, ha> been attached to the pole." 
Arrival of Artillery. 
" Captain Campbell's Company of artillery, of Chambersburg, rode 
into town on Sunday morning about ten o'clock. They brought with 
them four pieces of artillery, together with caissons and other equip- 
ments, and presented a handsome appearance. They are quartered 
at Camp Scott." 



If 



recites s. 

(Page 17.1 



''The President's Call for Troops in 1862." 

War Mekting in York. Large and Enthusias- 
tic Gathering of the People. 

From the York Gazette, July 29, 1862. 
'* T T 7ASHINGT0N HALL was crowded to its utmost capacity 
V V on Wednesday evening last, in response to a call of many 
citizens, "to take into consideration the condition of th« 
country in relation to the war, and devise means for encouraging 
enlistments of volunteers." The meeting was called to order by David 
Small, Esq., who nominated Samuel Small, Esq., as President. Mr. 
Small took the chair, and in appropriate words announced the object 
of the meeting." 

" Michael Smyser and John L. Mayer, Esqrs., were chosen Vic»- 
Presidents, and William Tash and Edward S. Rupp, Secretaries." 

"On motion of E. H. Weiser, Esq., a committee of ten gentlemen 
was appointed by the chair to draft resolutions, expressive of th« 
sense of the meeting. The chair appointed the following: E. H. 
Weiser, John Evans, Horace Bonham Charles A. Morris, David Small, 
and John Finly, who retired, and during their absence the meeting 
was eloquently addressed by Thomas E. Cochran, Esq , Reverends 
Street, Baum, France and Brown, and John Gibson, H. L. Fisher 
and John Evans, Esqrs." 

"The committee, through the chairman, E H. Weiser, Esq., reported 
tbe following resolutions, which were unanimously adopted: 



president's call for troops. 165 

Whereas, The President of the United States has made a requisL 
tion upon the loyal people of the Union for an additional number of 
volunteers, to aid in suppressing the unholy rebellion, now existing 
in our land ; and whereas, the Governor of Pennsylvania has fixed 
the quota to be supplied by York County, at three companies of vol- 
unteers, and urged the loyal citizens throughout our borders to take 
active measures for the encouraging of volunteering, and whereas 
York County should not be behind any of her sister counties, in tht 
patriotic work of sustaining the government in this its hour of perils, 
therefore. 

Resolved, That we pledge our warmest efforts to aid in furnishing 
the number of men required, and as many more as possible. 

Resolved, That in the opinion of this meeting there would be great 
necessity, as well as propriety, in the Commissioners of York County 
appropriating out of the County Treasury, a sum, which together with 
that already appropriated by the Council of the Borough of York, 
shall constitute a fund sufficient to pay a bounty, that will secur« 
the State's quota of volunteers — not less than fifty dollars to each 
volunteer who shall enlist in York County under the recent calls for 
additional troops in the expectation that the amounts so appropriated, 
will be refunded by the Legislature of Pennsylvania, at its next session. 

Resolved, That a committee of ten citizens be appointed by the 
President of this meeting, to wait upon the Commissioners of York 
County, and urge upon them th^ necessity of making the appropria- 
tion referred to above, and that the money so contributed by tht 
Commissioners, and by the Borough authorities, constitute a single 
fund to be placed under the charge of the committee already appointed, 
who shall appoint a treasurer of the same, by whom the amount of 
bounty to each volunteer shall be paid on the production of tht 
proper evidence, that he has enlisted in York County, and been sworn 
into the service of the United States. 

" Resolved, That in this exigency, we deem it expedient to procure 
by subscriptions amongst the people of this town and county, suck 
sums as they may be willing to contribute, to assist in promptly 
raising the number of volunteers asked for by the Governor's proc- 
lamation. 

'^Resolved, That to raise the necessary funds, a committee of fiv« 
persons be appointed to carry out the object of the next preceding 
resolution, with power to enlarge their numbers. 

^'■Resolved, That a committee of five be appointed to receive and 
disburse the funds to be raised by private subscription, with discre- 
tionary powers, as to its appropriation. 

"Under the above resolution the chair appointed the following gen- 
tlemen a oomroittee, to wait upon the County Commissioners; Henry 



166 MY LITTLE WAR KXPEKIENCE. 

Wel»h, P. A. Small, W. Ilgentritz, Eli Lewis, John Evans, A. J. 
Glossbrenaer, Hon. R. J. Fisher, E. Chapin, V. K. Keesey, Daniel 
Hartman. The following committee to solicit subscriptions. E. G. 
Smyser, Peter Mclntyre, Edward Launian, George Heckert, David E. 
Small. The following is the committee to receive the funds col- 
ected and disburse the same: Henry Welsh, David Small, Abraham 
Forry, Daniel Kraber, John Evans." 

From the York Press of August 15, 1862. 

York County's Quota. 

"The quota of three companies assigned^to York County has been mere 
than filled. In addition to the three full companies recruited by Captains 
Maish, Glessner and Jenkins, another has been raised by Captain Lewis 
Small, which left for Harrisburg on Friday morning last, and we are grat- 
ified in being able to state that all the companies were accepted. 

" Such a response speaks well for the patriotism and loyalty of oar 
people. We have, excepting in the last quota, sent the greater part of one 
regiment into the field, and we would pledge ourselves, if allowed the 
privilege of volunteering, to raise another regiment. The people of York 
will not allow any other County to go before them in their eSorti to carry 
OB the war to a successful issue." 






-€r 



(Pago 48.) 



Losses in Battle. 

Our Battle and Regimental Losses in the Civil 
War Compared with those of the Great Con- 
flicts OF Europe. Americans the Best, most 
Courageous and Tenacious Fighters in the 
World. 

IN comparing the casualties in the Civil War with 
those of European wars, Col. Fox, in his article : 
" Regimental Losses in the Civil War," says : 

" It was the greatest war of the century. On the Union side alone, 
110,070 men were killed in battle, while 249,458 more died from disease, 
accidents, in military prisons, or from other causes. Including both sides, 
over half a million lives were lost. There have been wars which have 
lasted longer — wars with intermittent and desultory campaigns; but in 
this struggle, the two armies for four years never let go their clutch upon 
each other's throats. For four years the echo of the picket's rifle never 
ceased." 

" It is hard to realize the meaning of the figures, 110,070 men killed; 
and that, on one side only. It is easy to imagine one man killed; or ten 
men killed; or, perhaps, a score of men killed. With some effort of the 
mind one can picture a hundred men stretched, lifeless and bloody upon 
the ground. The veteran recalls, as if in a dieam, the sight of many more 



168 MV UTTI^K WAR EXPERIENCB. 

lying upon some battle field; bnt even he is nnable to comprehend the 
dire meaning of the one hundred thousand, whose every unit represents a 
soldier's bloody grave." 

" The figures are too large. They will be better understood, however, 
and a more intelligent idea will be formed when they are compared with 
the losses of other wars. A better idea will also be obtained of the great 
struggle which occurred within our own borders, and with it will come a 
fuller recognition of American manhood." 

" The Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71 was one of the greatest of Euro- 
pean wars. Larger armies were never assembled. The Germans took 
797,950 men into France. Of this number, 28,277 were killed, or died of 
wounds — a loss of 3.1 percent. In the Crimean War, the allied armies 
lost 3.2 per cent, in killed, or deaths from wounds. In the war of 1866, 
the Austrian army lost 2.6 per cent, from the same cause. But, in the 
American Civil War, the Union armies lost 4.7 per cent, and the Confed- 
erates over 9 per cent. ; and this despite the greater area of country, which 
required a large share of the troops to protect the lines of communication. 
There are no figures on record to show that, even in the Napoleonic wars, 
there was ever a greater percentage in killed. In fact, all the statistics 
pertaining to the earlier wars of the century are loosely stated, and bear 
on their face a lack of accuracy. The historians of that period give all 
battle losses in round numbers, the killed, wounded, missing, and pris- 
oners being lumped together in one amount. Each writer treats the 
casualties as an unimportant part of his story, and seems to have made no 
e£Eort to arrive at anything like an accurate or classified statement. Per- 
haps, the facts were not obtainable and the historians were obliged to 
accept the wild, exaggerated stories of which there are always a plenty, 
and which soon crowd out of sight the truthful narratives." 

Waterloo and Gettvsbubo. 

" The two great battles of the age, in point of loss, are Waterloo and 
Gettysburg. Between them there is a remarkable similarity, both in 
numbers engaged and extent of casualties. At Waterloo, the French 
numbered 80,000 men, and 252 guns; the Allies numbered 72,000 men, 
and 186 guns. At Gettysburg, the Union army numbered 82,000 m«a 
and 300 guns; the Confederates, 70,000 m«B aad 250 ^uos. At Water- 




From a Painting 



RETUfiN OF THE "600." (p170i 




From a Painting. 



RECONNOITRING. tpp170, 201' 



LOSSBS IN BATTLE. 169 

loo, Wellington's army lost 23,185; at Gettysburg, Meade's army lost 23,- 
008. The loss of the French at Waterloo has never been officially an- 
nounced, but has been estimated at 26,300; the Confederate loss at Get- 
tysburg, as officially reported by the Confederate Surgeon-General, was 
20,448, to which must be added 7,077 wounded and unwounded prisoners 
whose names were omitted from his lists, but whose names appear on the 
records at Washington. In short, the battles of Waterloo and Gettysburg 
were fought with from 70,000 to 82,000 men on each side, and the com- 
batants lost about 23,000 men each." 

" In the Franco- Prussian War, the greatest loss occurred at the battle of 
Gravelotte, where the Germans lost 4,449 killed (including the mortally 
wounded); 15,189 wounded, and 939 missing; total, 20,577 out of 146,- 
009 troops engaged, exclusive of 65,000 reserves. At Gettysburg, Meade's 
army sustained a greater loss with half the number engaged. 

" In the American Civil War the Union Armies lost in killed 110,070 
killed or mortally wounded, and 275,175 wounded; total, 385,245, exclus- 
ive of the missing in action whose number has not as yet been offi- 
cially stated. The deaths from all causes were 359,528. There were 
112 battles of the war in which one side or the other lost over 500 
in killed and wounded; and 1882 general engagements, battles, skir- 
mishes, or afEairs in which at least one regiment was engaged." 

Oux Immense Regimental Losses Compared with the Regimental 
Losses of European Wahs. 

The heroism of the American soldier in the Civil war was never 
equalled. The loss of the 81st Pennsylvania at Fredericksburg was 
67.4 per cent. The First Minnesota at Gettysburg lost in killed and 
wounded 85 per cent., the greatest regimental loss in any battle in 
proportion to the number engaged. The 145th Pennsylvania in the 
same battle lost 75.7 per cent. Sixty-two regiments in the Union 
armies and forty-two in the Confederate armies lost more than 50 
per cent. At Gettysburg, the 26th North Carolina went into action, 
with an effective strength of over 800 men. They sustained a loss 
of 86 killed and 502 wounded; total, 588. In addition there were 
about 120 missing who fell into our hands, and nearly all were killed 
or wooadtd. The First Texas lost at Antietam in killed and wounded 



170 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

82.3 per cent.; the 20th Georgia at Bull Run, 76.0; 26th North 
Carolina, above mentioned, 71.7; and the 6th Mississippi at Shiloh, 
70.5 per cent. 

In narrating the abov^e losses, Col. Fox makes the 
subjoined comparisons : 

"It is well to pause here, and consider what these figures mean; 
to think of what such extraordinary percentages imply. Perhaps their 
significance will be better understood when compared with some extra- 
ordinary losses in foreign wars; some well-known instance which may 
serve as a standard of measurement. Take the charge of the Light 
Brigade at Balaklava. Its extraordinary loss has been made a familiar 
feature of heroic verse and story in every land, until the whole world 
has heard of the gallant Six Hundred and their ride into the Valley 
of Death. Now, as the Light Brigade accomplished nothing in this 
action, — merely executed an order which was a blunder, — it must be 
that it was the danger and its attendant loss which inspired the inter- 
est in that historic ride. What was the loss? The Light Brigade 
took 673 officers and men into that charge; they lost 113 killed and 
134 wounded; total, 247, or 36.7 per cent." 

"The heaviest loss in the German Army during the Franco-Prus- 
sian war occurred in the Sixteenth Infantry (Third Westphalian) at 
Mars La Tour. Like all German regiments of the line it numbered 
3,000 men. As this battle was the first in which it was engaged — 
occurring within a few days of the opening of the campaign — it car- 
ried 3,000 men into action. It lost 509 killed and mortally wounded, 
and 365 missing; total, 14S4, or 49.4 per cent. The Garde-Schutzen 
Battalion, 1,000 strong, lost at Metz, August 18th, 162 killed and 
mortally wounded, 294 wounded and 5 missing; total, 461, or 46.1 
per cent. 

" A comparison of these percentages with those of the Union reg- 
iments in certain battles just cited, will give some idea of the des- 
perate character of the fighting during the American Civil War." 



J^otes lO. 

(PageSS.) 



Harpers Ferry, 
By President Thomas Jefferson: 

^^''-y^HE passage of the Potomac through the Blue Ridge, ii per- 
X haps, one of the most stupendous scenes in nature. You 
stand on a very high point of land; on your right eomei 
«p the Shenandoah, having ranged along the foot of the mountain 
a hundred miles to seek a vent. On your left approaches the Poto- 
mac, in quest of a passage also; in the moment of their junction, 
they rush together against the mountain, rend it asunder, and pass 
off to the sea. The first glance of this scene hurries our senses into 
the opinion that this earth has been created in time; that the mount- 
ains were formed first, that the rivers began to flow afterwards, that 
in this place particularly they have been dammed up by the Blue 
Ridge of mountains, and have formed an ocean which filled the whole 
valley; that, continuing to rise, they have at length broken over at 
this spot, and have torn the mountain down from its summit to its 
base. The piles of rock on each hand, but particularly on the 
Shenandoah, the evident marks of their disrupture and avulsion from 
their beds by the most powerful agents of nature, corroborate the 
impression. But the distant finishing which nature has given to the 
picture, is of a very different character; it is a true contrast to the 
foreground; it is as placid and delightful as that is wild and tre- 
mendous; for the mountain being cloven asunder, she presents to your 
tye, through the cleft, a small catch of smooth blue horizon at an 



172 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

infinite distance in the plain country, inviting you, as it were, from 
the riot and tumult roaring around, to pass through the breach and 
participate of the calm below. Here the eye ultimately composes 
itself; and that way, too, the road happens actually to lead. You 
cross the Potomac above the junction, pass along its side through 
the base of the mountain for three miles, its terrible precipices hang- 
ing in fragments over you, and, within about twenty miles, reach 
Frederickstown, and the fine country round that. This scene is worth 
a voyage across the Atlantic, yet here, as in the neighborhood of the 
Natural Bridge, are people who have passed their lives within half 
a dozen miles, and have never been to survey these monuments of a 
war between rivers and mountains, which must have shaken the earth 
itself to its centre." 




>Iote5 11. 
(Page 83.) 



Thaddeus Stevens, 
Tlie Great Commoner. 

THADDEUS STEVENS, the eminent lawyer and 
Great Commoner, was born in Danville, Ver- 
mont, April 4, 1792. His family were desperately poor. 
His father was a farmer and surveyor. His mother was 
noted for her positive qualities, indomitable energy and 
strength of mind, and made a heroic struggle to give 
her children a good education. He was sickly in his 
youth, but by his own feeble exertions and those of his 
widowed and sainted mother enough was accumulated 
to send him to Dartmouth College, from which he grad- 
uated in 1814. He determined to study law, and to sup- 
port himself taught school in his native State and 
afterwards secured a position as instructor at the 
Academy in York, Pa. 

After his admission to the Bar, he practiced law at 
Gettysburg, Pa., and soon assumed the leadership of his 
profession in Southern Pennsylvania. In 1833 he rep- 
resented the County of Adams in the Lower House of 
the State Legislature, where he at once became the pro- 
moter and champion of the Common School system ol 



174 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

his adopted State. His speech in 1834 against the repeal 
of the school law was pronounced the ablest that had 
ever been delivered in the Pennsylvania Legislature. 
His victory was complete. Meanwhile, he practiced his 
profession in his own and neighboring counties. In 
1842 he moved to Lancaster, Pa., where he soon became 
the undisputed head of the Bar. He invariably volun- 
teered his services when proceedings were had for the 
return of fugitive slaves. His practice throughout his 
adopted State was very extensive and lucrative. He 
was not only learned, he was profound. He well de- 
served tlie tribute paid him by another eminent lawyer 
and political opponent, Judge Jeremiah S. Black, that 
at the time of his death he had no equal as a lawyer at 
the American Bar. 

In 1849 he took his seat for the first time in the 
National House of Representatives, but returned to the 
practice of his profession in 1853. In 1859 ^^^ reap- 
peared in Congress and continued a member until his 
death in 1868. At the outbreak of the war, when the 
Republicans attained the ascendency in the House and 
until his death, he was its acknowledged and undisputed 
leader. As such guiding star he had no successor, for 
no like genius has since appeared in the legal, political 
or legislative firmament. He was facile princeps in the 
creative legislation of the great Civil War and Recon- 
struction periods. The internal revenue system, the 
currency system, the national bank system, the form of 
the national debt originated in the war juncture and 
under his direction. No man in the country, in the 
field or out of it, exercised a greater influence or per- 
sonally did more to place our immense armies in the 
field. Of the measures adopted to reconstruct the South, 
Mr. Stevens was the author. He has left his impress 




HON. THADDEUS STEVENS. ip173) 



THADDEUS STEVENS. 176 

upon the form and body of the times. All his life he 
held the outposts of thought. Not his 

"The Dorian mood 
of flutes and soft recorders." 

His speeches were noted for their wit, satire, striking 
originality, profound learning, stately diction, felicitous 
expression and inexorable logic. Incomparable as mas- 
terpieces of learning, eloquence, argument and logic, it 
is surprising that they have never been compiled and 
published. 

When he arose to address the House, there was in- 
stantly a solemn hush, and the intense solicitude of great 
and eager expectation at once became regnant. Members 
of both political parties in great numbers clustered 
around him, who were held breathless, as one stands 
speechless when he suddenly comes into the presence of 
a scene in nature whose sublimity is overwhelming. 
All the Democratic speeches were directed, not against 
the Republican side of the House, but against " the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania," as the sole responsible 
exponent and controlling factor of Republican doctrines 
and legislation. It can be truly said of him what Quin- 
tilian said of Cicero: "That in his grandest efforts he 
exhibited the felicitous exuberance of his immortal 
genius." 

James G. Blaine, in his " Twenty Years of Congress " 
says : " Mr. Stevens was the natural leader of the House 
and assumed his place by common consent. He spoke 
with ease and readiness, using a style somewhat resemb- 
ling the crisp, clear, sententiousness of Dean Swift. 
Seldom, even in the most careless moment, did a sen- 
tence escape his lips that would not bear the test of 
grammatical and rhetorical criticism. ****** 
The one great object of his life was the destruction of 



176 MY UTTLE WAR SXPERIENCB. 

slavery and the elevation of the slave. From the pur- 
suit of that object nothing could deflect him. Upon no 
phase of it would he listen to compromise. * * * » 
* He was easily moved by the distress of others. He 
was kind, charitable, and lavish of his money in the 
relief of poverty. He had characteristics which seemed 
contradictory, but which combined to make one of the 
memorable figures in Parliamentary history of the 
United States — a man who had the courage to meet any 
opponent, and who was never overmatched in intellect- 
ual conflict." 

Mr. Blaine also observes that Mr. Stevens was "some- 
what lax in his personal morals." Without defects he 
would not have been mortal. Himself illustrious he 
had the most illustrious exemplars ; David, Solomon, 
Achilles, Caesar, Napoleon, Antony, Voltaire, Franklin, 
Hamilton, Webster. Men of positive, dominant and 
pre-eminent virtues possess imperfections as inseparable 
concomitants, that to diminutives appear mountain high 
— to the broadminded they are engulfed in their virtues. 
The considerate refuse to " draw his frailties from their 
dread abode." It is only mediocrity and less that gloat 
over the peccadillos of the great as a soothing balm co 
their own inconspicuous inferiority. To incur malig- 
nant envy is the penalty of greatness. 

" He who ascends to mountain-tops shall find 

The loftiest peaks most wrapt in clouds and enow; 
He who surpassed or subdues mankind 

Must look down on the hate of those below. 
Though high above the sun of glory glow, 

And far beneath the earth and ocean spread, 
Round him are icy rocks, and loudly blow 

Contending tempests on his naked head, 
And thus reward the toils which to those summits led." 

But history will forget Mr. Stevens' failings, as it 
bends with reverence before those exalted labors by 



THADDEDS STEVENS. 177 

which humanity has been advanced ; or as stated by his 
eulogist, Representative Maynard of Tennessee : 

" In the awfnl presence of death every voice is silent 
except the voice of sorrow and eulogy. The infirmi- 
ties of mortality are forgotten, the good is alone remem- 
bered ; criticism is disarmed ; censure loses its power ; 
men instinctively concede, as they expect, this immun- 
ity to the grave. It is, let us hope, an unconscious 
prefiguration of the better life to come." 

Hon. S. S. Cox, a contemporary of Mr. Stevens, and 
a bitter political opponent, and yet an ardent admirer of 
his great abilities, says in his " Three Decades of Federal 
Legislation : " 

" Mr, Stevens was not superficial. He was profound. 
His humor was not like that of ' Ben ' Harden or ' Tom ' 
Corwin — irridescent and genial. It smacked of Vol- 
taire. It had lurid lights. He had a will of audacious 
an intolerant quality. He never hated a fair opponent. 
He did hate bitterly some of his own party who would 
not follow his doctrine." 

He had an ineffable repugnance for all Republican 
dalliance or apostasy. A year before his death, in a 
conversation I had with him at the National House, 
York, he gave expression of his most sublime contempt 
for both Secretary of State Seward and Senator Sumner, 
who both became converts to the fatuous, impractical 
and ridiculous Reconstruction policy of President 
Johnson. 

Col. A. K. McClure in his " Lincoln and Men of War- 
times," places Stevens during the war even on the same 
pedestal with Lincoln, and says : " The country has 
almost forgotten the exceptionally responsible position 
of Stevens as the Great Commoner of our Civil War. 
It is the one high trust of a free government that must 



178 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIHNCE- 

be won solely by ability and merit. The Commoner of 
a republic is the organ of the people, and he can hold 
his place only when all confess his pre-eminent qualities 
for the discharge of his duties. * * * * * jjj 
all my acquaintance with lawyers of Pennsylvania, I 
regard Stevens as having more nearly completed the 
circle of a great lawyer than any other member of 
the Pennsylvania Bar." 

In *' Paradise Lost," Milton, said a contemporary of 
Stevens, in describing the rising of a supernatural orator 
to address a supernatural audience, gives an accurate 
description of him as he arose to address the House : 

" With grave 

Aspect he rose, and in rising seemed 
A pillar of state ; deep on his front engraven 

Deliberation sat, and public care; 
And princely counsel in his face yet shone, 

Majestic, though in ruin. Sage he stood, 
With Atlantean shoulders, fit to bear 

The weight of mightiest monarchies; his look 
Drew audience and attention still as night 

Or summer's noontide air." 

Nothing more brilliant has ever been written of any 
American Statesman than the noble tribute to Mr. 
Stevens by Henry Watterson. The following is an 
extract : 

" With his principles and his politics I have no sympathy what- 
ever. Even on economic questions I differ from him in the abstract 
and the concrete, in whole and in part; but his grandeur of char- 
acter and his force of intellect all candid men are bound to acknowl- 
edge who will calmly read his utterances in and out of Congress, 
* * » * * Stevens was called the Great Commoner but he had 
many of the attributes of Peter Romanoff. Henry Clay was Apollo 



THADDSUS STEVENS. 179 

stalking among the swine-herds of Admetus, Stevens, pleb in the 
baronial halls; and both are names to excite the emulation of youth 
so long as great deeds and eloquent tongues excite the admiration 
of civilized man, ' Immortal names that were not born to die ' " 

In a speech delivered in the House January 13, 1865 
(Vol. 54 ol the Globe page 266) Mr. Stevens said : 

" I will be satisfied if my epitaph shall be written thus : ' Her* 
lies one who never rose to any eminence, and who only courted the 
low ambition to have it said that he had striven to ameliorate the 
condition of the poor, the lowly, the downtrodden of every race and 
color.' » 

His noble tribute in the House upon the announce- 
ment of the death of Mr. Noell, of Missouri, whom he 
knew and with whom he sympathized, concluded : 

" Other men more eloquent than he may have been called to the 
bar of Judgment, but no man ever appeared before that dread tri- 
bunal with more numerous and ardent advocates. His advocates were 
the oppressed ones of every nation, the crushed of the satanic insti- 
tution of slavery." 

" Who would not rather have his chance in the great day of accounts, 
before that Judge who is the Father of all men, than the chance of 
ordained hypocrites, miserable wretches, who, professing to hold a 
commission from on high, impiously proclaim slavery a divine insti- 
tution?" 

Mr. Stevens died at Lancaster, August 11, 1868. Mr. 
McCall concludes his biography : 

" The body of Mr. Stevens was buried in a humble cemetery in 
the city of his home. His choice of the spot grew out of his un- 
swerving devotion to the cause which lay close to his heart during 
every moment of his life. Upon the monument which has been reartd 
may b* rtad the following inscription, prepared by himself : 



180 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

'THADDEUS STEVENS, 

BOBN AT Danville, Caledonia, Co., Vermont, 

April 4, 1792. 

Died at Washington, D. C, 

August 11, 1868. 



I REPOSE in this QUIET AND SECLUDED SPOT 
Not FROM ANY NATURAL PREFERENCE FOR SOLITUDE, 
But, FINDING OTHER CEMETERIES LIMITED AS TO RaCB 

By Charter Rules, 

I have chosen THIS THAT I MIGHT ILLUSTRATE 
In my DEATH 

The Principles which I advocated 

Through a long life: 

EQUALITY OF MAN BEFORE HIS CREATUR.' 

" His epitaph well indicates his chief distinction. A truer demo- 
crat never breathed. Equality was the animating principle of his 
life. He deemed no man so poor or friendless as to be beneath the 
equal protection of the laws, and none so powerful as to rise above 
their sway. Privilege never had a more powerful nor a more con- 
sistent foe." 

I have descanted rather extensively upon the salient 
characteristics and transcendent abilities of this Great 
Commoner, and the incomputable labors contributed to 
the cause of popular education — the handmaid of civili- 
zation, — to the cause of the Union in its darkest and 
gloomiest days, and in the uplifting of the down-trodden 
and the oppressed. I have done so because the man, 
his unselfish labors, his exalted patriotism and civic 
triumphs appear to be now so little known or appre- 



THADDEUS STEVENS. 181 

ciated. No encomium, however lofty, bestowed upon 
this genius is flattery ; and I trust that my humble 
tribute to his life and memory may awaken and stimu- 
late an interest and study of the man and his imper- 
ishable services, and enlist the sympathy and assistance 
of others so that we may be no longer remiss in render- 
ing tardy justice by rearing a stately and imposing shaft 
to him who contributed so much to the * ''completion of 
the edifice of which Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton 
and their illustrious compeers laid the foundation — the 
temple of Universal Freedom around which the op- 
pressed of all the nations of the earth may worship." 

*(His ending of a famous speech.) 



S' 



(Page 86.) 



Rev. Henry Ward Beecher in Great Britain, 

1863. 

Delivers Brilliant Speeches to Convert the 
Dominant Class of that Country to the 
Cause of the North. Is Confronted by Armed 
and Hostile Mobs. In Imminent Peril. Graphic 
AND Humorous Descriptions. His Transcend- 
ent and Swaying Power as an Orator. 

MR. BEECHER'S invaluable services to the Union 
during the Civil War are not generally known 
to this generation. His courageous and forceful 
speeches in England in 1863 were made on his own 
responsibility to convert an intensely hostile public 
sentiment and prevent a recognition of the Southern 
Confederacy by Great Britain. The entire British 
Cabinet was rabidly pro-Southern, and the slightest 
pretext would have been taken advantage of to ensure 
such recognition — and war aS an inevitable consequence. 
We had our hands full as it was, and to fight Great 
Britain in conjunction would have been a most. serious 
and fatal handicap. W^hat the probable issue would 
have been unless Russia, our ancient friend, had come, 



BKECHER'S conquest in ENGLAND. 183 

as she had stated she would, to our rescue, is too 
horrible to contemplate. 

Mr. Beecher's speeches and efforts to prevent such an 
alliance with the South deserve our lasting gratitude. 
He himselt describes the hostile feeling and attitude of 
nearly all of the British upper classes . 

" Almost every man i- England," says Mr. Beecher, " who rode in a 
first-class car, was our enemy. The great majority of professional men 
were our enemies. Almost all the Quakers were against us. All the 
Congregational ministers in England— not in Wales — were either indifiEer- 
ent and lukewarm, or directly opposed. The government was ooir enemy. 
It was only the common people, and mostly the people who had no vote» 
that were on our side. Everywhere the atmosphere was adverse. In 
Manchester our American merchants and men sent out to buy were 
afraid, and knuckled down to the public feeling. The storm in the air 
was so portentous that they did not dare to undertake to resist it. No man 
ever knows what his country is to him until he has gone abroad and heard 
it everywhere denounced and sneered at. I had ten men's wrath in me, 
and my own share is tolerably large, at the attitude assumed all around 
me against my country." 

His first speech was made in the city of Manchester. 
The meetings following throughout England were almost 
as tumultuous and riotous as those in which he made 
his initial effort. He says : 

" We reached the hall. The crowd was already beginning to be 
tumultuous, and I recollect thinking to myself as I stood there looking at 
them, ' I will control you! I came here for victory and I will have it, 
by the help of God!' Well, I was introduced, and I must confess that 
the things that I had done and suffered in my own country, according to 
what the chairman who introduced me said, amazed me. The speaker 
was very English on the subject, and I learned that I belonged to an 
heroic band, and all that sort of thing, with abolition mixed in, and so on. 
By the way, I think it was there that I was introduced as the Rev. Henry 
Ward Beecher Stowe. But as soon as I began to speak the great 
audience began to show its teeth, and I had not gone on fifteen minutes 



184 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

before an unparalleled scene of contusion and interruption occurred. 
No American that has not seen an English mob can form any conception 
of one. I have not seen all sorts of camp-meetings and experienced all 
kinds of public speaking on the stump; I have seen the most disturbed 
meetings in New York city, and they were all of them as twilight to 
midnight as compared with an English hostile audience. For in England 
the meeting does not belong to the parties that call it, but to whoever 
chooses to go, and if they can take it out of your hands, it is considered 
fair play. This meeting had a very large multitude of men in it who 
came there for the purpose of destroying the meeting and carrying it 
the other way when it came to the vote." 

" I took the measure of the audience and said to myself, ' About one- 
fourth of this audience are opposed to me, and about one-fourth will 
be rather in sympathy, and my business now is not to appeal to that 
portion that is opposed to me nor to those that are already on my side, 
but to bring over the middle section. ' How to do this was a problem. 
The question was, who could hold out longest. There were five or six 
storm centres, boiling and whirling at the same time; here some one 
pounding on a group with his umbrella and shouting, " Sit down there; " 
over yonder a row between two or three combatants; somewhere else a 
group all yelling together at the top of their voice. It was like talking 
to a storm at sea. But there were the newspaper reporters just in front, 
and I said to them, " Now gentlemen, be kind enough to take down what 
I say. It will be in sections, but I will have it connected by-and-by. " 
I threw my notes away, and entered on a discussion of the value of 
freedom as opposed to slavery in the manufacturing interest, arguing 
that freedom everywhere increases a man's necessities and what he needs 
he buys, and that it was, therefore, to the interest of the manufacturing 
community to stand by the side of labor through the country. I never 
was more self-possessed and never in more perfect good temper, and I 
never was more determined that hearers should feel the curb before I got 
through with them. The uproar would come in on this side and on that 
and they would put insulting questions and make all sorts of calls to me, 
and I would wait until the noise had subsided, and then get in about five 
minutes of talk. The reporters would get that down and then up would 
come another noise. Occasionally I would see things that amused me 
and would laugh outright, and the crowd would stop to see what I was 




o 




BRECHRr'S conquest in ENGI.AND. 185 

]aughing at. Then I would sail in again with a sentence or two. A 
good many times the crowd threw up questions which I caught at and 
answered back. I may as well put in one thing that amused me hugely. 
There were baise doors which opened both ways into side-alleys, and 
there was a huge burly Englishman standing right in front of one 
of those doors and roaring like a bull of Bashan; one of the police- 
men swung his elbow round and hit him in the belly and knocked him 
through the doorway, so that the last part of the bawl was outside in the 
alley-way; it struck me so ludicrously to think how the fellow must have 
looked when he found himself " hollering " outside that I could not 
refrain from laughing outright. The audience immediately stopped its 
uproars, wondering what I was laughing at, and that gave me another 
chance and I caught it. So we kept on for about an hour and a half 
before they got so far calmed down that I could go on peaceably with my 
speech. They liked the pluck. Englishmen like a man that can stand 
on his feet and give and take; and so for the last hour I had pretty clear 
sailing. The next morning every great paper in England had the whole 
speech down. I think it was the design of the men there to break me 
down on that first speech, by fair means or foul, feeling that if they 
could do that, it would be trumpeted all over the land. I said to them 
then and there. " Gentlemen, you may break me down now, but I have 
registered a vow that I will never return home until I have been heard 
in every county and principal town m the Kingdom of Great Britain 
I am not going to be broken down nor put down. I am going to be heard, 
and my country shall be vindicated." * « * * 

"I went from there (Edinburgh) to Liverpool. If I suppose I had 
had a stormy time I found out my mistake when I got there Liverpool 
was worse than all the rest put together. My life was threatened, and I 
had communications to the effect that I had better not venture there. 
The streets were placarded with the most scurrilous and abusive cards, 
and I brought home some of them and they are in the Brooklyn Historical 
Society now. It so happened, I believe, that the Congregational Associa- 
tion of England and Wales was in session there, and pretty much all of 
the members were present on the platform. I supposed there were five 
hundred people on the platform behind me. There were men in the 
galleries and boxes who came armed, and some bold men on our side 
went up into those boxes and drew their bowie knives and pistols and 



186 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

said to those young bloods, "The first man that fires here will rue it." 
I heard a good many narratives of that kind afterward, but knew nothing 
of it at the time. But of all confusions and turmoils and whirls I never 
saw the like. I got control of the meetirg in about an hour and a half 
and then I had a clear road the rest of the way. We carried the meeting, 
but it required a three hours' use of my voice at its utmost strength. 
I sometimes felt like a shipmaster attempting to preach on board of a 
ship through a speaking-trumpet with a tornado on the sea and a 
mutiny among the men. By this time my voice was pretty well uted 
up, and I had yet to go to Exeter Hall in London," 

Dr. Campbell, a distinguished Englishman who was 
present, is reported to have said that he never heard 
anything like it since the days of Daniel O'Connell; 
that he had heard some of his best things, and he 
thought, on the whole, that not one of them equalled 
Mr. Beecher's efforts at that time. 

The effect of Mr. Beecher's transcendent eloquence, 
pathos, wit and dramatic power has not been exaggerat- 
ed by his biographers: 

"The speeches in England which Mr. Beecher has thus simply but 
graphically described may fairly be characterized as the greatest oratorical 
work of his life. It may well be doubted whether, if oratory is to be 
measured by its actual results, there is in the history of eloquence 
recorded any greater oratorical triumph than that achieved in this 
brief campaign. The only parallel in public eEEect is that produced 
by Demosthenes' orations against Philip. The orators of the American 
Revolution spoke to sympathizing audiences; those of the anti-slavery 
campaign in this country produced far less immediate effect ; the 
orations of the great orators in the British House of Commons — 
Chatham and Burke — rarely changed the vote of the House; and though 
Lord Erskine won his victories over his juries in spite of the threats of 
the judges and the influence of the Government, the issues which 
engaged his attention were not so grand, nor the circumstances so trying, 
nor the immediate results so far-reaching. It is not too much to say that 
Mr. Beecher, by giving a voice to the before silenced moral sentiment 
of the democracy of Great Britain, and by clarifying the question at 



BEECHKR'.S conquest in ENGLAND 187 

issue from misunderstandings which were well nigh univtrsal and mis- 
representations which were common, changed the public sentiment, and 
10 the political course of the nation, and secured and cemented an 
alliance between the mother country and our own land, which needs no 
treaties to give it expression, which has been gaining strength ever since, 
and which no demagogism on this side of the water and no ignorance 
and prejudice on that have been able to impair. 



->4c 



JSlotc; 13 

(Page 122.) 



Conway Cabal, Lafayette. 

Gkn. Lafayette's Rebuff to the Conway Cabal 
IN York. His Second Reception in York, 1825. 
Early Stages and Primitive Cars. 

DURING the session of Continental Congress in 
York, 1777-8, many Continental Officers were 
quartered there. While Gen. Lafayette visited 
Congress, Gen. Horatio Gates and other members of the 
Conway Cabal, gave a feast in his honor, with a view ot 
winning him over to the Conspiracy. 

The faith and devotion of this young and gallant 
French officer never faltered toward the man he so 
loved and honored. In spite of the frowns and silence 
accompanying it, he gave as his toast: "The Com- 
mander-in-Chief of the American Armies." 

From "Lossing's Pictorial Field Book o£ the Revolution," Vol. 2, p. 339: 
" Sparks relates that, when Lafayette arrived in York be found Gates 
at table, surrounded by his friends. The Marquis was greeted with great 
cordiality, and accepted an invitation to join them at table. The wine 
passed around and several toasts were drunk. Determined to let his 
sentiments be known at the outset, he called to the company as they were 
about to rise, and observed that one toast had been omitted, which be 




From Spangler Annals 

GEN. LAFAYETTE'S STAGE TOUR, 1825- (p 189) 




From Spangler Annals. 

BALL GIVEN TO GEN. LAFAYETTE IN YORK, PA., 1825. (p 89) 



\C:: 



CONWAY CABAL, LAFAYETTE. 189 

would propose. The glasses were filled and he gave : " The Commander- 
in-Chief of the American Armies." 

" The coolness with which it was received confirmed Lafayette in his 
suspicions." 

His Second Visit to York in 1825. 

Gen. Lafayette, on a tour throughout the country, in 
1825, visited York. He was accorded a most hospitable 
reception, and a ball was given in his honor. A mem- 
ber of the committee of reception in a letter describes 
his impressions as follows: 

"We had the j^reat Lafayette here about two weeks ago. I was 
appointed one of the committee to receive, and had the honor to be 
much about his person, and enjoyed his conversation. He speaks the 
English very readily, making use of good and appropriate language 
though he has much of the French accent. He has a very pleasing and 
expressive countenance, eyes full, large nose, eye-brows much arched, 
and when he speaks he throws them up and down with a smile, every 
look and gesture manifesting peculiar interest to whatever he says. He 
is very ready of access and makes every one easy in his company. When 
I said to him— General, I am happy to see you look so well — you appear 
much younger than I expected to see you — He replied — Thank you, Sir — 
I have enjoyed very good health, I am 67 years. You have been in this 
place before? — I was here once, in '77 — I stayed but a short time — 36 
hours — my business was with the Congress and the Board of War." 

Early Stages and Primitive Cars. 

Gen. Lafayette made his tour of the States in the 
regular stages ot the period. From 1756 to 1834 may 
be described as the Stage-Coach Era of the United 
States. The mail was carried from Philadelphia to 
Pittsburg in nine days. Each successive improvement 
of the highways of travel and commerce met its full 
share of opposition. The turnpike provoked a fierce 
antagonism ; for Stage-Coach and Conestoga Wagon 
rendered the pack-horse a useless institution. 



190 MY LITTLK WAR KXPHRIBNCK. 

General Alexander Ogle, member of Congress in the 
days of General Jackson, in the course of a Fourth of 
July oration, described the opposition to the turnpike 
and wagon transportation: "Your grandmother," said 
he, "can tell you what a rumpus these ninnies raised 
around the first wagon road over the mountains to Pitts- 
burg. It would break up the pack-horse men and the 
horse breeders would be ruined. I told them that one 
wagon could carry as much salt, bar iron and brandy 
from Philadelphia or Baltimore as a whole caravan of 
half starved mountain ponies, and I further told them 
that of all the people in the world fools have the least 
sense." 

The Stage was succeeded by the primitive Locomo- 
tive Coaches and Canal Packets. To the stage-owners 
and tavern-keepers the railroad and canals were inno- 
vations and unwelcome improvements. When the rail- 
roads came first into being, the cars had a kind of stage- 
coach body. In 1835 the building of railroads had so 
far progressed that the Postmaster-General recommend- 
ed that the mails be carried on the railroads then being 
constructed. In that year, however, the contract for 
carrying the mails between New York and Philadelphia 
was given to the stage-coach line because the railroad 
protested that the schedule time required (thirteen miles 
an hour) was too fast. 



(Page 122.) 



Gates— Wilkinson Duel. 

Generals Gates and Wilkinson at York, 1778. 
They meet to Fight a Duel at the " English 
Church," York. The Conway Cabal. 

COINCIDENT with the intrigues of the Conway 
Cabal (in preceding note) were the reflections by 
General Gates on the conduct of Gen. Wilkinson, 
Adjutant General of the Continental Army. The latter 
deeming his honor deeply wounded by the course of 
General Gates, determined to demand satisfaction, and 
a duel was arranged to take place behind the Protestant 
Episcopal Church on North Beaver Street, York. 

The account of this meeting of Gen. Gates is given 
by Gen. Wilkinson himself in his "Memoirs" in these 
words: 

" I immediately proceeded to Yorktowu, where I purposely arrived in 
the twilight, to escape observation; there I found my early companion 
and friend Capt. Stoddert, recounted my wrongs to him, and requested 
him to bear a message to Gen. Gates, whose manly proffer of any satis- 
faction I might require, removed the difficulties which otherwise might 
have attended the application ; he peremptorily refused me, remonstrated 



192 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

against my intention, and assured me I was running headlong to destruc- 
tion ; but ruin had no terrors for an ardent young man, who prized his 
honor a thousand fold more than his life, and who was willing to hazard 
his eternal happiness in its defense. Pardon me, High Heaven, in pity 
to the frailties of my nature. Pardon '^me. Divine Author of my being, 
for yielding to the tyranny of fashion, the despotic prescription of honor, 
when I sought, by illicit means to vindicate the dignity of the creature, 
whom thou hast fashioned after thine own likeness ; for the first time in 
our lives we parted with displeasure, and I accidently met with Lieut. 
Col. Burgess Ball, of the Virginia line whose spirit was as independent 
as his fortune, and he willingly became my friend. By him I addressed 
the following note to Gen. Gates, which I find with date, though it was 
delivered the same evening (the 23rd) : 

' I have discharged my duty to you and to my conscience ; meet me 
to-morrow morning behind the English Church, and I will there stipulate 
the satisfaction which you have promised to grant. I am 

Your most humble servant, 

GEN. GATES.' JAMES WILKINSON. 

" The general expression of this billet was calculated to prevent unfair 
advantages, for, although Gen. Gates had promised me satisfaction, I 
determined to avoid unnecessary exposition ; and therefore Col. Ball was 
instructed to adjust the time, and circumstances, and made no difficulty 
about the arrangements. We were to meet at 8 o'clock with pistols, 
and without distance. We arose early the next morning, had put our 
arms in order, and was just about to repair to the ground, when Capt. 
Stoddert called on me, and informed me Gen. Gates wished to speak 
with me. I expressed my astonishment and observed it was ' impossible!' 
He replied with much agitation, ' for God's sake be not always a fool, 
come along and see him.' Struck with the manner of my friend, I 
inquired where the General was? He answered 'in the street near the 
door.' The surprise robbed me of circumspection ; I requested Col. Ball 
to halt and followed Capt. Stoddert ; I found Gen. Gates unarmed and 
alone, and was received with tenderness but manifest embarassment ; 
he asked me to walk, turned into a back street and we proceeded in 
silence till we passed the buildings, when he burst into tears took me by 
the hand, and asked me how I could think he wished to injure me? I 
was too deeply affected to speak, and he relieved my embarassment by 




From Spangler Annals. PRI MITI VE COAL T RAI N. (p 1 90.^ 




From Spangler Annals. 



PRIMITIVE PASSENGER TRAIN, (p 190* 



GATES— WILKINSON DUEL. 193 

continuing ' I injure you? It is impossible, I should as soon think of 
injuring my own child.' This language not only disarmed me, but 
awakened all my confidence, and all my tenderness ; I was silent, and he 
added, 'besides there was no cause for injuring you, as Conway acknowl- 
edged, in his letter, and has since said much harder things to Washington's 
face.' Such language left me nothing to require ; it was satisfactory 
beyond expectation, and rendered me more than content. I was flat- 
tered and pleased, and if a third person had doubted the sincerity 
of the explanation, I would have insulted him ; a long conversation 
ensued, in which Lord Sterling's conduct was canvassed, and my 
purpose respecting him made known, and it was settled I should 
attend at the war office ( York ^ in my capacity of secretary a few days, 
and then have leave to visit the camp at Valley Forge, where Lord 
Sterling was. 

" I attended at the war office, and I think found there the honorable 
Judge Peters and Col. T. Pickering, but my reception from the Presi- 
dent, Gen. Gates, did not correspond with his recent professions; he 
was civil but barely so, and I was at a loss to account for his coldness 
yet had no su'^picion of his insincerity." 

It is related by Mr. Dunlap, in his History of New 
York, upon the authority, it is presumed, of the late 
Gen. Morgan Lewis, that a day had been appointed by 
the " Cabal " in Congress, at York, for one of them to 
move for a committee to proceed to the Camp at Valley 
Forge to arrest Gen. Washington, and that the motion 
would have succeeded had they not unexpectedly lost 
their majority which they possessed when the measure 
was determined on. 



IMote^ 15. 

(Page 123.) 



The Ducking of the Tory Rector in York, 

1775" 

DURING the Revolutionary war, (with the exception 
of a short interval) there was no divine service 
held in St. John's Episcopal Church, known as 
the " English Church," all the others being German. 
It was for some time used as an arsenal. Being very 
much out of repair through violence and long disuse, 
it was after the Revolution again fitted up for a place 
of worship. One of the first regular clergymen whose 
names are mentioned in the records was the Rev. Daniel 
Batwell. His residence was at the parsonage house in 
Huntington, now belonging to Adams County, but he 
preached steadily to the congregation in York. He was 
a missionary trom England, sent by the Propagation 
Society, who commenced his services in York county a 
short time before the Revolution, and began his pastor- 
ate in York in 1774. His feeling, with respect to the 
war for Independence, but ill coincided with those of 
the people in his neighborhood. Having come from 
Huntington township he preached at York on the 
Sabbath, and on Monday morning following was seized 
by some rude and boisterous friends of liberty by whom 
he was three times ducked in Codorus Creek. 



DUCKING THE TORY RECTOR. 196 

Being freed, he set out on his return to his dwelling 
house, but he had hardly arrived there when a company 
of armed men from York roughly seized him, and 
returning confined him in the public prison. On the 
2nd of October, 1777, a memorial from Mr. Batwell 
was read in Congress. It set forth " that on a charge 
of being concerned in a conspiracy to destroy the 
continental magazines of this State, he was in custody 
of the keeper of the Jail in York County, by virtue of 
commitment, until Congress, or the Supreme Executive 
Council of this State, shall take further order touching 
him, or until he should be otherwise discharged accord- 
ing to law." " It appealed to Congress," by the certifi- 
cate of Dr. Jameson, " that the memorialist was so 
much emaciated by a complication of disorders that his 
life would be endangered unless he would be removed 
from the jail. Congress, however, referred the memorial 
to the President and Supreme Executive Council of 
this State, in the meantime permitting him to remove 
from the jail, and receive every indulgence, yet still 
remaining in safe keeping. 

After some time Mr. Batwell was released, and re- 
turned to England. Though his political views did 
not coincide with those of Americans, yet it is due to 
his worth to say, that he was an accomplished scholar 
and a good man. After his return, he obtained a 
church preferment in the county of Kent, where he 
ended his days. 

In rSio, a small house was erected near the York 
Episcopal Church tor the use of the sexton. In remov- 
ing the pulpit, several pounds of powder were found 
concealed under it ; probably placed there in the begin- 
ning of the Revolution by some one who had evil 
designs upon the Rev. Mr. Batwell. 



(Page 123. 



York Couniy l\uriousm m I'le 
Revohuionaiy War. 

^'ORKTOWX, eleven miles west of the Susque- 
A hauua, was, during the Revolution, the only town 
of importance west of that river ; and in it the 
Continental CongTess sought refuge while Gen. Howe 
occupied Philadelphia, and in the late fall, winter and 
spring of 1777-7S. It was an important theatre of 
action during the Revolutionary struggle. All the 
troops from South to North and z'i^i-zcrsa passed 
through the town. 

The County ot York was especially patriotic. It 
sent out more soldiers during the Revolutionary War 
than any other secrion ot the colonies in proportion to 
population. 

Thomas Hartley, -a most valiant and distinguished 
colonel in the Revolutionary War from Yorktown, a 
member of Congress of the County from 17S9 to 1800, 
and a Major-General of the Pennsylvania Militia, wrote 
irom Yorktown. under date of March 17, 177Q, to His 
Excellency Jos. Reed, Esq., President of Pennsylvania, 
as follows : 



YORK IN THE REVOLUTION. 197 

" Upon my arrival here I found many of the inhabitants dissatisfied with 
the determination of the council concerning the York election. They 
thought it hard that a majority of the electors shonld be deprived of a 
Representative in Council for years." 

"They knew that they had been as patriotic as any; that the York 
district had armed the first in Pennsylvania, and had furnished more 
men for the war and lost a greater number of men in it than any other 
district on the Continent of the same number of inhabitants. At Fort 
Washington only, they lost 300 men, not 50 of which have ever returned. 
Their distressed parents and widows daily evince the melancholy truth." 

In the York Moravian Church Records, made by 
Pastor Neissor, under date of July 17, 1776, appears 
the following entry : 

" Yorktown seems quite deserted on account of the departure of all 
men under fifty years of age. Thus only the old brethren and sisters 
will be left. Several of our people, because the town has been so 
emptied, have in addition to some other persons, been elected as 
members of the Committee ad interim, with a guard given them day 
and night, in order to maintain peace and order, and give security 
against the plots of the Tories. All business and every occupation 
are prostrated, all shops are closed. How many prayers and tears 
will now be brought before the Lord by parents for their children, 
by children for their parents, by wives for their husbands." (See 
Spangler Annals, 361, 385, 394-462, 511-527.; 

York Riflemen at Boston, 1775. 
This Rifle Company left York July i, 1775, and 
arrived at Boston on the 29th, and was the first company 
south and west of the Hudson to cross that river 
for the theatre of war. The York Moravian records 
of July ist, have the further entry : 

" This afternoon a company of 100 men of this town left for the 
American army in New England, with the ringing of bells, after a 
8-rmon had been preached by the Presbyterian minister on the text, 
1 Samuel x, 12 in which they were exhorted to keep God before 
their eyes during their expedition, and then they could be assured 
of His protection and guidance; otherwise this would not hi. the case," 
(Spangler Annals, p. 516.) 



IVote IT. 

(Page 36.) 

Description of Battle Pictures. 

Battery in Full Charge. 

• * '' I '•HIS is a picture representing a colonel of mounted artillery 
J, at full gallop, and with sword raised, giving the word of 
command to his regiment who are seen a little behind him advancing 
in a whirlwind of dust, and inspired, as it were, with the heroism of their 
leader. One cannot contemplate it many minutes together without 
fancying himself transported into the thick of the fight, amidst all 
the neighing of the infuriated steeds, the hoarse command of the 
officers, the deafening roll of the ammunition wagons, and the whistling 
of the bullets. The part of the subject the most conspicuous is the 
black charger of the colonel. Thi^ beautiful animal is still before the 
entranced observer, his head turned to one side, his wild look, his 
nostrils dilated and blowing violently, and his whole body glazed with 
perspiration or white with foam. The picture is a perfect masterpiece 
of a wonderful warlike movement." 

Havoc Wrought to a Battery Going into Action. 

(Page 40.) 

"The form of battle has greatly changed since the early stages of 
human history. Every epoch has had its own manner of conflict. In 
antiquity, the armies were drawn up and fought hand to hand; afterwards* 
war chariots were introduced, with long scythe-like blades projecting 
from the axles. Then elephants began to be employed in battle, and 
were taught by their masters to fight with all the vehemence and strength 



BATTLK PICTURES 199 

which such creatures possess. The introduction of fire-arms again 
changed the form of battle The use of cannon dates from the thirteenth 
or fourteenth century. Perhaps the most tragic act of the modern battle- 
field is that relating to the management of batteries. In this picture we 
have an example of the fearful havoc in that part wher« the guns are 
ployed. Not the least part of this tragedy is the destruction of fine 
horses. War does not spare these in its devastations. Here, in the 
foreground, we have a battery going into action. The artist has done 
full justice to the fearful scene. A blast from the enemy's guns has 
struck down the battery horses, and there is still universal ruin. The 
fight, however, goes on, and the morrow will take little heed of the 
destruction of to-day." 

An Evening Camp at the Front. 

(Page 78.) 

"This is a pleasing view of a group of artillerymen seated in a circle at 
the foot of a redoubt, on which are seen a line of slender guns pointed 
towards the horizon, and over whose menacing repose watches a sentinel 
with sword in hand. The loquacity of the principal speaker of the group 
is in quaint contrast with the silence of the guns. And, yet, the artillery- 
man is evidently narrating something very humorous and his story is of 
the highest interest. The day's labors have been so arduous that only 
two or three of his companions, whose mouths are agape, have the 
strength to keep awake and listen. The others are fast asleep and their 
fatigue is evidently so overpowering that the entire battery might 
thunder without waking them." 

The Standard Bearer Faithful Unto Death. 

(Page 84.) 

" The theme of this picture from an incident of war. There has 
been a charge against the enemy's earthworks. A repulse has followed, 
and the brave vanguard of the assaulting party has been slain. The 
battle is over, and in the gray of the early morning the dead are being 
carried away from the scene of carnage. Every detail of the picture has 
reference to the daad standard-bearer in the middle foreground, who 



200 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

clasps to his heart the tattered banner with its broken staff. The eagle 
of his standard is in the dust, and his sword has been wrenched from 
his grasp, but he has fallen in the front rank with his face to the foe. 
The colonel stands with uncovered head in the presence of the dead 
hero, and every figure in the picture shows by the attitude or expression 
of countenance the reverential response of the human soul to bravery and 
unselfish devotion to duty. " Whene'er a noble deed is wrought, our 
hearts in glad surprise to higher levels rise." 

After the Battle. 
(Page 84.) 

" Last night beheld them full of lusty life; 

Last eve in beauty's circle proudly gay. 
The midnight brought the signal sound of strife, 

The morn, the marshalling in arms— the day 

Battle's magnificently stern array! 

The thunder clouds close o'er it, which rent. 
The earth is covered thick with other clay 
Which her own clay shall cover, heaped and pent, 
Rider and horse, friend, foe — in one red burial blent." 

The Last Mdsteb. 

(Page 126.) 

" This picture is a master-piece, and cannot fail to make a profound 
impression. These old men — worn-out veterans of war — have assembled 
in the chapel of a " Soldier's Home " and seem pathetically awaiting the 
end after hard work done— while some gallant fellows whose lives a dozen 
times risked had been devoted to the service of their country. They are 
now mustered in the service of God to await his " last call." Even, as 
we look, one has obeyed the summons beyond the power of his 
kindly neighbor to awaken him." 

The Slave Market, Ancient Rome. 

(Page 136.) 

"Slavery was a recognized institution in Rome. Under its various 
governments alike, under Kings, the Republic and the Empire. Captives 
in battle were sold into slavery, criminals and insolvent debtors became 



BATTLE PICTURES 201 

slaves, and parents, at one time of the Republic, could sell their children 
into slavery. There was nothing therefore to shock the Roman citizen in 
contemplating the Slave Market as one of the necessities of Rome, 
In the picture there is an air of business-like reality about all concerned, 
from the gross old keeper, dipping his 6st into his bowl of olives, to 
the youngster standing erect, so that every inch of his proportion may 
show to the best advantage, and a look of 'Won't you buy me?' on his 
babyish face. The central figure, probably a captured soldier, is a grand 
study, and his proud figure is a strong contrast with the courtesan seated 
contentedly at his feet. The four figures to the right run the gamut 
downwards, from the despair in feature and gesture of the tall female, 
the fearfulness and shrinking timidity on her right, sullen thoughtfulness 
at her feet, to the little slattern at the top of the ladder, who waiti as 
patiently for a new master as a modern Biddy would wait in a modern 
intelligence office. 



Reconnoitring. 
(Page 168.) 

" A battallion of French foot Chasseurs are about to occupy a village 
that has just been the scene of a cavalry engagement in the Franco- 
Prussian War. The main body is seen advancing at the end of the 
street. Entering the principal avenue from opposite sides are small 
detachments, who have been scouring the town to prevent surprise. 
The extreme van is led by the squad of men in the foreground, whose 
commander is receiving information from a peasant youth. From 
their attitude and expression, it is plain that they are so near the retiring 
enemy that a skirmish is imminent. Melancholy proofs of the recent com- 
bat are seen in the Pzussian Calvarymen and his horse who together lie 
weltering in their blood, and in the two wonnded men on either side 
of the road. The one to the right is probably a German, while the 
other who is being succored by the inmates of the house at whose door 
he lies, may be a Frenchman. The villagers, who have either fled or 
shut themselves up in their houses, begin to show themselves again. 
Besides those who minister to the wounded man, a woman is perceived 
cautiously peering from an upper window; and two boys, terrified, yet 



202 MY LITTLE WAR EXPERIENCE. 

led on by curiosity and love of excitement, who creep slowly forward, 
are clinging for safety to the wall. A deep and stirring sense of reality 
pervades every part of the picture." 

Stop Firing. 

"It is a curious fact to notice that when man's fiercest passions are at 
fever heat in the clash of war a touch of tenderness, all-controlling, is 
possible for allaying all thoughts of conquest. A Sister of Mercy on the 
battle field is wounded when in the exercise of heaven-sent mission — 
caring for the wounded and dying — and instantly goes forth the request, 
acknowledged by all brave men, 'Cease firing.' Too late it may be, for 
the fatal bullet seems to have done its work in this instance; but the 
fleeing and pursuers in an instant halt the mad career of combat to see 
what can be done for the wounded woman. It is a noble picture, and 
elevating in its lesson." 

Last Thoughts. 

" It has long been known that many persons in cases of escape from 
death, say drowning, or hanging, or travelling accidents, who came to 
tell of their feelings when hope of life had fled, with great uniformity 
have said that the whole of their past life seemed to pass before them 
at a glance, and most vividly their early home life. The painter, acting 
on this, has painted the Trumpeter in full career, and while sounding 
the battle-charge for his comrades is met by the deadly bullet, and he 
knows instantly it is death. With one glance at the past, his last thoughts 
rest on his home, and as he may once have seen his father and 
mother and his young brother joined in prayer with the good pastor 
for the safety and welfare of their soldier son." 



f^ 



INDEX. 



African Slavery, the Cause of the Civil War 3-12 

Antietam, Battle of 29, 32-45 

Losses at 46 

"Bloody Lane," 35, 36 

Arlington, Va 20 

Army Rations and Cooking 22 

Army of the Potomac at Antietam 46 

Its Strength at Fredericksburg 57 

and Chancellorsville 89 

Its Losses in these Battles 118 

Battle Pictures, Description of 198 

Beecher, Rev. Henry Ward. His remarkable oratory 

in 1863 for the Union in England 84, 85, 182 

Belle Plains, Va., Unloading Boats 58 

"Bloody Lane," Antietam 35, 36 

Brown, John, Invasion of Virginia, Battle and 

Death 10, 149-153 

Burnside, Gen. A. E. His costly errors and madness 

at Fredericksburg 57, 63, 76. 78, 79, 80 

Cars, Primitive 189 

Qiancellorsville, Battle of 86-114 

That terrible Saturday night at 91, 92, 94-107 

Confederates, Advantage of, on the defensive, and re- 
cruiting 43 

Congress United States. Free fight in 1858 145-148 

Conway Cabal in York 179, 193 

Dred Scott Case 9 

Early Stage Coaches 189 

England. Hostile to the Union in 1863 183 



INDEX 

Enlistment in the Army 17 

Fear of the Soldier in Battle 30, 31 

Free Fight in U. S. Congress in 1858 145-148 

Field Hospitals; Terrible Scenes after Battle 39 

Franklin, Gen. Wm. B. Error in his Recollections.. 78 

Frederick, City of 23 

Fredericksburg, Battle of 61, 79 

Fredericksburg, Hardships and Suffering Before the 

Battle 59 

Gates, Gen. Horatio. Wilkinson Duel 191 

Gettysburg and Waterloo 168 

Grant, Gen. U. S. Fear in Battle 31 

Harper's Ferry, Surrender of 41 

Its Remarkable Scenery 54, 171 

Hartley, Col. Thomas ; 196 

Hooker, Gen. Joseph. Blunders at Chancellorsville, 

90, 91, 112 

President Lincoln's Remarkable Letter to 118 

Jackson, Gen. Stonewall 91 

His mortal wound at Chancellorsville 91-107 

Desire to raise the Black Flag 107-8 

His death and not Gettysburg the turning point 

of the war 100 

A Great Chieftain 107 

Lafayette, Gen. in York and Conway Cabal 179 

Lee, Gen. Robert E.. Lost Dispatch of 23, 24, 40. 41 

At Antietam 50 

At Fredericksburg 75 

Over-confident at Gettysburg 11 9- 120 

Losses in Battle 45, 167 

McClellan, Gen. Geo. B 21 

At Antietam 40-48 

Relieved of Command 57 

Mills' House, Fredericksburg, Entry of Shell 68, 69 

Missouri Compromise 8 

Negro Religious Meeting in New Orleans before the 
War; howling dervishes; humorous description. 131-138 



INDKX 

One Hundred and Thirtieth Regiment, Pa. Vol., for- 
mation of o 

^t Antietam '.•'.''.'.'.''.'''".' "^'.■■.30-45 

At Fredericksburg 61-68 

At Chancellorsville 90-95^ 109-112, 115, 118 

Return Home and Banquet 121-128 

Picket Duty at the Front gg 

Pictures, Battle ' j^g 

Regimental Losses j^p 

Rifle Pierced at Antietam ^7, ko 

Rigor Mortis at Fredericksburg 62 

Second Corps, "The Fighting Corps" 46, 47 

"Six Hundred," Losses of jyo 

Shelter Tents ^ 

South Mountain, Battle of 2^-27 

Spanglers of Virginia in Confederate Army 55 

Spengler Hall cq 

Stages, Early j^^ 

Stevens, Thaddeus g^ g. j-^ 

Sumner, Gen. Edwin V ' 22 

Sumner, Senator Charles. Brutal Assault upon in the 

United States Senate 134-144, 177 

Tory Rector, York, 1775. Ducking of ' 194 

Washington. In Hospital gi 

Wilkinson, Gen. Gates' Duel, 1777 191 

Winter Dug-outs g^ 

York County, African Slavery in c 

York County Companies in 130th Regiment 18 

York County Patriotism in the Revolution 196 

York Hospital ci 

York in Revolutionary War 122 

Gates-Wilkinson Duel 122 

Ducking of the Tory Rector 122 

York, War Meetings 14, 15, 16, 154, 156, 158, 164 

Zinn, Col. H. L, Killed at Fredericksburg at the head 
of the 130th Regiment 66 



iUW 2 1904 



